Police: No domestic violence calls at home before 3 deaths

SEBEWAING, Mich. — A police chief says there’s no record of domestic violence calls to a Michigan home where a man is believed to have killed his wife and college-student daughter before fatally shooting himself.

The man owned a carpet- and tile-cleaning company in the village of Sebewaing, and he and his wife were prominent members of the community, police Chief Bill Owens told MLive.com. The wife worked at the village’s only library, the chief said. They were in their mid-to-late 50s.

Their daughter, an only child, was in her early 20s and attended Saginaw Valley State University.

Their names weren’t immediately released.

Owens, the village’s chief for the past 10 years, said his department has never responded to a domestic violence situation at the family’s home.

“They were very active in the community, real good people,” the chief said. “I think that’s probably what makes it so surprising.”

The family was found dead from gunshot wounds around 1 a.m. Thursday after a family friend asked police to do a well-being check. Owens estimated the shootings occurred 12 to 24 hours earlier.

Owens said the shootings were the first deaths from violence in Sebewaing in nearly four decades.

The chief told the Huron Daily Tribune of Bad Axe that Michigan State Police took several weapons from the home.

“It’s like a nightmare, because this doesn’t happen in our town,” Cindy Parker told MLive.com. Parker graduated from Unionville-Sebewaing Area High School in 1975 with the mother and father.

The village of about 1,800 people is located on the coast of Saginaw Bay about 95 miles (152 kilometres) north of Detroit.