If you are experiencing a mental health emergency, call now. Help is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Call or text 988. You can also chat with 988lifeline.org.
Authorities in DeKalb County, Alabama, said two people were found dead in an apparent murder-suicide along with two dogs at a home in Mentone.
DeKalb County Coroner Tom Wilson, when contacted Tuesday by phone, deferred to the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office for information on the identity of the pair found dead.
The names of the deceased have not been released, but according to a statement issued by the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office, their deaths were due to apparent gunshots.
DeKalb County 911 dispatchers Friday received a call from a man in Mentone who reported multiple fatalities at his home, the sheriff’s office statement said. Mentone is a small town of about 325 people atop Lookout Mountain near Fort Payne, Alabama, and about 35 miles southwest of Chattanooga.
(READ MORE: Couple identified in Monday nursing home murder-suicide in Dunlap)
“While dispatchers coordinated the response, they maintained communication with the caller,” the sheriff’s office said. “The caller disclosed that he had shot his wife and their dogs, and then expressed intentions to take his own life. The dispatchers continued to engage him in conversation until the call was disconnected.”
Deputies reaching the scene found the bodies of a man, a woman and two dogs, all with apparent gunshot wounds, officials said. Investigators from the Jackson State University Center of Applied Forensics responded to the scene to collect evidence. The district attorney’s office was also notified.
“The findings indicated that the male had taken the life of the female before ending his own,” the sheriff’s office said.
In the statement, Sheriff Nick Weldon thanked nearby agencies for their help in the investigation and offered his condolences to family members.
“Please keep all families involved in your thoughts and prayers for the weeks and months to come,” Weldon said.
The sheriff did not immediately return a phone message left Tuesday at his office seeking more details.
Contact Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6569.
Staff photo by Ben Benton / DeKalb County, Ala., Sheriff’s Office in Fort Payne, Ala., is pictured in this Sept. 3, 2015, photo. The sheriff’s office is investigating an apparent murder-suicide in Mentone that left two people dead along with their two dogs.