Police think dispatcher killed daughter, self

WINDHAM (AP) — Authorities in Ohio say they suspect the deaths of a fire department dispatcher and her young daughter are a case of murder-suicide.

Sheriff David Doak in northeast Ohio’s Portage County says 29-year-old Melisa Hall sent a text message to relatives and friends before she died on Wednesday. Officers found Hall and her 2-year-old-daughter, Naysa, dead in the backyard of their home in Windham at a little after 6 p.m. A handgun was near the bodies.

Doak did not reveal the contents of the text and declined to comment on a possible motive. He says investigators suspect Hall shot her child and then herself.