The deaths of 3 people in Breezy Point were a murder-suicide, prosecutor says
3 people found dead in Breezy Point
Authorities are investigating after three people were found dead at a townhouse development in Breezy Point on Tuesday night. According to the sheriff's office, authorities responded to a Whitebirch Estates on Whitebirch Drive in Breezy Point around 8:45 p.m. and found three people deceased.
BREEZY POINT, Minn. (AP) - The deaths of three people at a northern Minnesota resort were a murder-suicide, authorities said Thursday.
Investigators concluded that Michael Charles Toner, 59, of Maple Grove, shot his partner, Melanie Michele Jansen, 54, of Maple Grove, and her daughter, Hannah Nicole Parmenter, 29, of Elk River, before shooting himself in the head, Crow Wing County Attorney Donald Ryan said in a statement. The news release gave no details on a possible motive.
The bodies were discovered around 8:50 p.m. Tuesday at Whitebirch Resort in the city of Breezy Point, a timeshare resort managed by the nearby Breezy Point Resort, a popular vacation destination about 150 miles (240 kilometers) northwest of Minneapolis.
Police went there after getting a 911 call from Jansen’s son and his wife, who had gone there to visit the women, who had been renting the unit since Friday, Ryan said. When the son’s knocks went unanswered, he looked through the window and saw a man and a woman on the ground with blood around them and called police.
Autopsies on Wednesday determined that the two women each died of multiple gunshot wounds, while Toner died of a single self-inflicted shot to the head.
Ryan said the investigation is continuing. But he reiterated that there was "no evidence of any threat to the public."