A man and woman are dead following an apparent murder-suicide early Tuesday morning in northwest Kalispell.

Kalispell police, Flathead County Sheriff’s deputies and Montana Highway Patrol troopers responded to 134 Fly Way at 12:41 a.m. after a man called to say his father had just shot his mother and was going to commit suicide.

By the time law officers arrived, the man was dead.

The bodies of both the man and the woman were located in one of the bedrooms. Both had sustained gunshot wounds.

Kalispell Police Department Investigations Capt. Scott Warnell declined to add any details Tuesday afternoon. He said the Kalispell Police Major Case Unit would still be on scene investigating and collecting evidence into the evening.

He confirmed the shootings are being investigated as a murder-suicide, but said, “We are letting the evidence dictate the direction the investigation goes.”

A coroner was called to the scene after 5:30 p.m. Tuesday. Warnell said the coroner call was delayed until the investigation was complete and it was time for the bodies to be removed.

A neighbor said she was asked by investigators whether she heard a scuffle at about 9:45 p.m. Monday.

The neighbor also said that she was walking by the home about four days ago and witnessed someone yelling at the couple’s son inside the house — and the son was yelling back.

A day later, the son noticed her outside and yelled to her, asking her if she wanted to come over and “drink some rum.”

She said the son and father had been helpful to her during the winter. Once they gave her clutch fluid when she was having problems with her car; another time they helped her get her car out when it was stuck in her driveway. She did not remember ever seeing the mother.

Although she was home and awake at the time of the shooting, the neighbor said she didn’t hear anything and didn’t notice the law enforcement response until she saw lights beaming in one of her front windows around 2 a.m.  

It wasn’t until later in the morning that she realized something more serious had happened.

“I saw all the cars outside and wondered who passed away, then I saw the whole road had been blocked and looked out my back door and saw the police tape,” she said.

Warnell said he expected to release the names of the man and woman sometime this morning.

The believed murder-suicide marks the fourth violent incident involving death in Flathead County in the last five months:

• AnnMari Newton is charged with mitigated deliberate homicide for the Nov. 25, 2013, stabbing death of her husband, Chad, at their Whitefish home. Her case is set for trial on April 28.

• Mark Ames is charged with deliberate homicide in the Jan. 12 shooting death of 60-year-old Harold Gordon at the Marion duplex where Gordon and Ames’ wife were living.

• Pamela Haines is charged with deliberate homicide in the Valentine’s Day shooting death of her 71-year-old boyfriend, Thomas Edwards, at their Hungry Horse home.