Woman Dead, Man Kills Self In Online Date Probe
EDENVILLE (WWJ/AP) - Central Michigan authorities searching for a woman who disappeared on a date with a man she met online, say the man killed himself as deputies arrived at his house and the woman's body was found nearby.
The Midland County Sheriff's Department says 30-year-old Steven Michael Fabi was found dead Tuesday in a bedroom of a home in Edenville Township, about 115 miles northwest of Detroit. Authorities say he apparently fatally shot himself as deputies were walking up to his house to investigate Leigh Swanson's disappearance.
Police say Swanson met Fabi through the online dating site MeetMe.com and went out on a date with him on Nov. 16. Two days later, police say Swanson called her mother to say she would be home in a few hours. But she never arrived at her home in Saginaw Township, and her family reported her missing Nov. 20. She was found shot to death on Nov. 28.
Swanson's mother, Beverly Kane, told WNEM-TV earlier that her daughter told her she had a bad feeling about going on the date.
"I said, 'Don't go,"' Kane told the television station.
"But when she got there," the mother added, "she called me ... and said everything was OK."
Investigators traced the call to a house in Edenville Township, and two deputies went there Tuesday seeking information on Swanson, Midland County Sheriff Jerry Nielsen said.
"As they were walking to the front door, they heard a gunshot," he said.
Nielsen said the deputies took shelter and called to anyone in the house to come out with their hands over their heads.
A man emerged holding a cellphone on which he was speaking to 911 operators and said, "My son just shot himself," Nielsen said.
In the house, deputies found Fabi dead from a gunshot wound. They also found human blood in another part of the house, he said.
Investigators began searching the area and found Swanson's body around 1:30 p.m. Wednesday about 30 feet from the road in a wooded area of a neighbor's property, the sheriff said, about 10 miles northwest of Midland.
An investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Midland County Sheriff's Department at 989-839-4620.
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