EMMETT TOWNSHIP (WKZO-AM) — Calhoun County Sheriff Matt Saxton has confirmed the death of a deputy and his wife over the weekend was a murder-suicide.
Divorce papers had been reportedly filed, effectively ending the marriage of Mark and Hope Elferdink. Allegedly, she was seeing another man.
Saxton said he shot her three times and then fatally wounded himself with a .40 caliber semi-automatic gun they found in the grass near their bodies. Saxton also said they had no idea that Elferdink was capable of anything like this.
Township Public Safety Chief Mike Olson said their children were home hosting a sleep-over with friends. Most of them slept through the shooting. One of them discovered the bodies in the morning.
Test results are still pending, which may answer some additional questions.
