Mich. man charged with killing wife, father-in-law

ORANGE TOWNSHIP, Mich. - A Michigan man accused of fatally shooting his wife and father-in-law was charged Wednesday with murder, home invasion and kidnapping.

Keith A. Ferguson, 40, of Kalkaska was arraigned Wednesday on open murder, firearms and other charges in Kalkaska District Court. A judge set his bond at $10 million, and Sheriff David Israel said Ferguson will be represented by a court-appointed lawyer.

Authorities arrested Ferguson after he released a hostage and left a home where he'd barricaded himself for several hours beginning late Tuesday.

Police said Ferguson killed his wife Tiffany Ferguson, 42, and father-in-law James Webber, 63, at homes in the county.

"All the evidence is there," the sheriff told The Associated Press. "We've got witnesses, his own children witnessed him shoot these other family members, we got admissions from him in roundabout ways."

Court records show that Tiffany Ferguson filed for divorce in September and a hearing was scheduled Friday.

Israel said that the couple's children ran from their grandfather's house and told a neighbor that their father shot their grandfather and mother. The neighbor, a Kalkaska County sheriff's deputy, called 911.

About the same time, Keith Ferguson called 911 from a home in Orange Township and said "he had a hostage and warned that he would shoot any responding officers," Israel said in a statement.

Ferguson surrendered after a seven-hour standoff and the hostage, who Israel said wasn't a relative and appears to have been taken at random, was unarmed.

Tiffany Ferguson was an involved mother who helped create a youth hockey association, the Traverse City Record-Eagle reported.