EMMETT TOWNSHIP, MI (WTVB) – Calhoun County Sheriff Matt Saxton has confirmed that the death of a deputy and his wife over the weekend was a murder/suicide.
Apparently divorce papers had been filed and the marriage of Mark and Hope Elferdink was over. She was reportedly seeing another man.
Saxton says he shot her three times and then fatally wounded himself with a .40 caliber semi-automatic they found in the grass near their bodies.
Sheriff Saxton says they had no idea that Elferdink was capable of anything like this.
Township Public Safety Chief Mike Olson says their children were home hosting a sleepover 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 questions, but they may never be able to determine what pushed the deputy over the edge.
Hope Elferdink was a 1995 graduate of Coldwater High School.
