Crime & Safety

Police Say Woman Suffered Multiple Gun Shot Wounds in White Lake Murder-Suicide

Police discovered the bodies of a White Lake couple in a home off Danforth at 9 p.m. Monday.

Police are now releasing the names of the two White Lake residents involved in what officials are calling a murder-suicide.

Police Chief Ed Harris said 37-year-old Jason Handy shot his wife, Lorian Handy, 33, multiple times Monday night before turning the gun on himself in their home off Danforth in White Lake.

"He only had one visible gunshot wound from what I could see," Harris said. "She had several wounds."

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Lorian Handy's 8-year-old son was the only other person home at the time. Harris said it's still not certain if he heard the gun shots, or actually witnessed the crime, "We are giving the child some space, he's obviously been through a lot and we don't want to press him for information. It was pretty clear from the evidence at the scene that this was a murder-suicide."

Harris said the couple had moved the area in the last few years, and the department has had no prior contacts with either of the individuals.

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"We've never been called to the home, there was never a report of domestic violence prior to Monday," he said. "We are still waiting to get toxicology results, so we don't know if drugs or alcohol were a factor in this incident."

Harris said there is no apparent motive at this time, police only know that the two had been arguing prior to shots being fired.

The child was the one to alert a neighbor of the incident, Harris said. "He ran across the street as soon as the shots were fired and notified the neighbor of what had happened. They kept him at their home until we arrived on the scene."

Because of the late hour, Harris said officers from Oakland County and Waterford were called in to help secure the perimeter of the home, "Once we had enough officers on the scene, we entered the home and found the deceased in the bedroom."

The child was released to his birth father. Harris said the birth father and the mother had a joint custody agreement, and that the mother was planning to take the child to his father's earlier in the evening when she and Jason were fighting.

"It's a very, very sad situation and we've all felt it around here," Harris said. "We're happy that the child was unharmed physically, but it's been tough on us and the families involved. It was just a terrible tragedy."


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