Authorities in Texas are investigating an apparent murder-suicide in Northwest Harris County that left a woman and a man dead inside a family home, FOX 26 Houston reported. Harris County Sheriff's Office deputies were called to the scene just after midnight, responding to a residence at the end of a gated community on South Springs Court in Tomball.
The emergency call that brought deputies to the home came from a child. According to the report, a 12-year-old girl phoned 911 to say that her mother was unresponsive, prompting the late-night response from the sheriff's office to check on the household and the people inside.
When deputies arrived, they were confronted with a grim scene. They found the girl's mother deceased, and a man believed to be the girl's stepfather with what investigators described as a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Based on the evidence at the home, officers believe the deaths were a murder-suicide.
The child who made the call was not physically hurt during the incident. The 12-year-old girl was not harmed and was released into the care of a family friend, while the case itself remained under active investigation by sheriff's detectives in the hours that followed.
Officials offered some detail about the household. Sergeant Michael Ritchie said the man and the woman were possibly married or in a common-law relationship, and that all three of them, including the girl, had lived at the home together for what he described as a good amount of time.
As detectives worked the case, a troubling pattern emerged. According to the report, during interviews with neighbors and the young girl, investigators determined that there had been previous incidents of violence connected to the household before the deadly events unfolded overnight.
The investigation is still ongoing as authorities work to confirm exactly what happened. An autopsy is expected to be carried out within 24 hours to determine the precise cause of death, a step that should help officials piece together the final sequence of events at the Tomball home.