The death of Tomas Hernandez Martinez, the state police's director general and operations coordinator, is a "huge loss" for the force, the Guerrero public security department said in a statement.
The state's deputy attorney general, Jose Antonio Bonilla, later confirmed to reporters that a woman was also killed. He didn't specify whether the couple was married or not.
An agent from the state prosecutor's office, who was at the crime scene, told AFP on condition of anonymity that the couple had stab wounds in their faces and other parts of their bodies, and their throats were cut in their home in the populous neighborhood of Progreso.
The violence is linked to turf battles between the Beltran Leyva criminal group and the Independent Cartel of Acapulco.