HARTWELL, Ga. -- The Hart County Sheriff's office and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation are looking into what appears to be a murder-suicide, according to deputies.
According to Cleveland, the bodies of 66-year-old Linda J. Whitfield and 65-year-old Carey T. Whitfield were discovered in their home Tuesday morning around 8 a.m. by one of their two adult daughters.
Both had gunshot wounds.
"Unfortunately it was her daughter that found her. She had called to see how they were doing and couldn't reach them by phone and went in person. She found her mom first and the called us and we went in discovered her dad was also deceased," said Sheriff Mike Cleveland.
Cleveland says that Mr. Whitfield had been dealing with an extended illness.
"It appeared that Mr. Whitfield had taken Mrs. Whitfield's life and then his own. We knew Mr. Whitfield had had some health problems lately. But no one saw this coming, of course. It's unfortunate," said Cleveland.
"We immediately called the GBI. When anything like that happens we treat it, even a single suicide, especially by gunshot, we treat like it could be a homicide because, or in this case, a third person involved. We want to eliminate all the other possibilities before we just assume that something happened and go from there," he said.
Cleveland told WYFF News 4 Mr. Whitfield owned a grocery store in Hartwell many years ago.
Both were longtime residents of Hartwell.
The case is still under investigation.
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