A husband and wife have died in an apparent murder-suicide in Waupaca County, according to Sheriff Brad Hardel.
The victims were a 32-year-old woman and her 51-year-old husband, the sheriff's office said. The wife was separated from the husband.
On Tuesday morning, just after 8 a.m., deputies responded to a report of a vehicle in a ditch at the intersection of North Shore Road and State Highway 110 in the Town of Royalton.
The person who called said the vehicle was still running and the wheels were spinning, and it appeared two people were inside the car and unconscious, the sheriff's office said.
Deputies found the couple dead inside the car from gunshot wounds, Sheriff Hardel explained. The wife had been driving.
It appeared the man shot his wife multiple times and then shot himself, he said.
"In my 30-plus years in law enforcement, I haven't had a case like this," said Sheriff Hardel. "This is a little bit different with the crash kind of being the result of the murder-suicide."
Investigators later reviewed surveillance video from a supper club across the street that showed the man pulling into the parking lot just before 8 a.m. in another vehicle.
His wife arrived a few minutes later and he got into her car, the video showed.
The vehicle then crashed into the ditch immediately after leaving the supper club parking lot, Sheriff Hardel said.
Officers found an empty handgun holster in the husband's car, according to the sheriff's office.
The wife had been living with relatives in Manawa, while the husband was living at the couple's Weyauwega residence, the sheriff said.
The sheriff's office is not releasing names until relatives are notified.
