Two people are dead in Clare County after what police describe as a murder-suicide on Sunday, August 25.

The Clare County Sheriff’s office says a Harrison man, 35-year-old Frazer Bartel, killed his wife, 27-year-old Nicole Bartel, also of Harrison, before turning the gun on himself. Police believe it was over a dispute regarding marital trouble and an upcoming divorce.

Police received a 9-1-1 call from Nicole Bartel’s sister, who was inside the home on C Dale Drive in Hayes Township at the time, saying Nicole had been shot and there were five children in the home. She told dispatchers she was getting the children to safety.  The children are the couple’s 2-year-old daughter, Frazer’s 7-year-old son, a 15-year-old niece, a 15-year-old family friend and a 1-year-old nephew.

When police arrived around 7:00 a.m., they set up a perimeter around the house, closing a section of US-127 because of it’s closeness to the home. After failing to make contact with Frazer, they sent in a robot and discovered the bodies in the upstairs.

The bodies have been sent for autopsies and toxicology testing.