Metro detectives are trying to figure out why a South Nashville man killed his girlfriend, shoved her remains into an odor-proof trash can, and then shot himself days afterward.

In what police call a "bizarre, elaborate murder-suicide" plot, the couple was found dead a week after officers initially went to the home to check on the woman.

Authorities found the bodies of Jesse Meece, 45, and who they presume to be Beth Jacobs Straub, 45, on Monday afternoon after officers stopped at Meece's home on Ilawood Drive after his mother called police and said he hadn't shown up for work.

Read more from our news partners at The Tennessean.