ORANGE, Calif. A couple and their toddler son have been found shot to death in their Orange County apartment in an apparent murder-suicide, police said Wednesday.

An apartment manager who hadn't seen the family in several days called police, who arrived Tuesday afternoon to find a 44-year-old man, his 42-year-old girlfriend and their 2- or 3-year-old son each dead with a single bullet wound to the head, Orange police Sgt. Mike Monjaraz said.

Investigators found a gun near the man and a suicide note he had apparently written, Monjaraz said.

"It appears that all three had been shot by the male," he said.

Police said they found the man and woman in separate bedrooms and found the boy in a kitchen chair.

The apartment manager told officers the couple's cars had not moved and that they had not answered their phone for several days.

Monjaraz said the man and woman had been together for about five years and had lived in the apartment in Orange since September 2006. The city is about 30 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles.

No names were released because relatives had not been notified.