Tragedy struck a home on Harmony Road during the wee hours of Wednesday morning.
Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills said a call came into the 911 Emergency Center at 4:23 a.m., and a man told them his address and said he had just shot his wife and was going to kill himself. Then he hung up.
Sills and deputies rushed to the address on the 800 block of Harmony Road but could not get anyone to answer the door, so they forced it open.
“Once inside, we found two victims in the bed along with two dogs also in the bedroom; all four were dead,” he said.
He identified the victims as Timothy Brown, 64, and Vicky Brown, 62.
Sills said the two dogs, which appeared to be chihuahuas, had been shot with a .22 rifle while inside of their crate.
“They could’ve very well been asleep when they were shot,” he said.
The couple had been shot with a .380 semi-automatic pistol.
The sheriff’s office had no history of domestic violence calls at that address, and the next-door neighbor told deputies they had heard no arguments or gunshots.
“But they probably wouldn’t have heard them because they were asleep, too,” Sills said.
He added that there was no sign of a struggle or fight in the residence. Putnam County Coroner Hollis Harrison said the neighbor told him the couple had just celebrated their 43rd wedding anniversary last month.
The bodies were sent to the GBI crime lab for an autopsy, according to Harrison.