SALTSBURG - An elderly woman, her sister and her niece were found shot to death inside an auto glass business, and a handgun similar to one owned by a relative was found nearby, police said.

Police asked a judge for permission to get a DNA sample from the relative, but state police Trooper Jeanne Martin didn't say whether he was in custody or if he was a suspect.

The bodies were found at about 6 p.m. Thursday in Ferguson Glass Services in a remote area of rolling hills and farmland near Saltsburg. The dead women were identified as Edith Cora Tietge, 81; her sister, Doris Lynn Murphy, 69; and Murphy's daughter, Kris Lynn Murphy, 43.

Tietge lived across the road from the shop in Loyalhanna, and the Murphys lived several miles away in Saltsburg.

The women appeared to have been shot in the head, and a .22-caliber handgun police believe is the murder weapon was found near the shop's rear door, investigators said in an affidavit accompanying their request to get Kevin Murphy's DNA sample.

An employee told police Kevin Murphy the shop's 48-year-old owner had brought a .22-caliber handgun to the shop earlier this week, investigators said in the affidavit. Murphy told police he hid the gun in the shop, the affidavit said.

A woman who answered the phone Friday at a listing for Kevin and Doris Murphy in Saltsburg hung up without commenting.

Police were called to the business Thursday by a family member who found the bodies in the shop's garage. It's not clear who the caller was.

On Friday, police searched a trash bin and several barns around the shop.