A close-knit Butler County family is struggling for answers to nagging questions.

Why did their son and brother end up dead inside an Allegheny County apartment that he was renovating?

Who was the woman found dead with him on the same couch?

What do police know that they aren’t sharing?

“He was quiet and easy going. A good person. He never drank and never went into bars. He never did any drugs,” said Pattie Walker of her brother, Franklin Nicolazzo. “The only thing he ever did was smoke cigarettes.

“What happened to him? We don’t know. We’re just devastated.”

Allegheny County homicide investigators are saying little about their investigation into the deaths of Nicolazzo, 57, of Penn Township and Angela L. Schlagel, 37, of Lyndora.

The couple was found dead Friday by Walker’s sister, Cindy Nicolazzo of Saxonburg, who had gone to the house after the family grew concerned when they had not heard from Nicolazzo for two days.

Cindy and her husband broke down the front door of the home on Kuntz Street in Harrison Township’s Natrona neighborhood that her brother, Tim Nicolazzo of Penn Township, had recently bought as rental property.

Nicolazzo, who had moved back to the area from Missouri two months ago and was going through a divorce, had been spending much of his time in recent days at the home, which brother Tim planned to convert into three apartments.

Investigators said they believe the deaths are not suspicious. But they have said little else.

Autopsies done Sunday did little to clear up how Nicolazzo and Schlagel died.

A cause and manner of death for both are still pending, a supervisor with the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s office said.

The supervisor said it could take eight to 24 weeks before authorities know what killed the couple.

Neither Nicolazzo nor Schlagel had suffered any trauma, which would indicate foul play, the autopsies found.

Authorities upon the initial discovery of the pair wondered if they had succumbed to accidental carbon-monoxide poisoning. But that theory was dismissed when they found Nicolazzo’s pug puppy alive in the house.

Investigators refused to say if any narcotics were found at the scene.

Nicolazzo’s family is particularly inquisitive about Schlagel. They never heard of her until police told them of Nicolazzo’s death.

But they know of her checkered past.

Schlagel has a lengthy criminal history, according to court records. Most of her convictions between 2002 and 2104 were for shoplifting and other thefts.

But two other cases, for misdemeanor drug possession, are especially alarming to the Nicolazzo family.

Last June, Schlagel pleaded guilty in Armstrong County Court to possession of a controlled substance. She was placed on one year’s probation, records showed.

She also had another 2014 possession case still pending in Butler County Court.

“How the hell did my brother get involved with this lady?” Walker said.

Nicolazzo’s father, Michael of Penn Township, and his five children, are in the dark about any kind of relationship the two shared.