Couple dead in apparent murder-suicide at gymnastics center

SOUTHGATE, Mich. -- Police say a man and a woman are dead in an apparent murder-suicide at a gymnastics center in a southern Detroit suburb.

Police told reporters that the incident was captured on a 911 call from a woman who had just opened the Downriver Gymnastics center, according to CBS Detroit. Officials told the Detroit Free Press that police received the call about 9:20 a.m. Monday.

Public Safety Director Thomas Coombs said that no one was talking at the other end of the line, but the dispatcher heard what seemed to be arguing. Three minutes after the dispatcher received the call, shooting was heard, according to the CBS affiliate.

Coombs told the Free Press that officers arrived and found a female employee and a man dead -- later identified as Paul Schirrick, 53, and Wendy Schirrick, 54. He says they were the only ones inside the club at the time.

"Upon the officers arriving, they discovered an apparent murder-suicide inside the location," Coombs told reporters. "The female who was involved in the murder-suicide which was the victim, was an employee there."

He also told reporters that the couple were in the middle of divorce proceedings, according to CBS Detroit.

No other suspects are thought to be involved, reported the Free Press. Investigators from the Michigan State Police crime lab were to be called in.

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