WILLARD (AP) – The Greene County Sheriff’s Office said the death of a woman and her estranged husband was a murder-suicide.

Sheriff Jim Arnott said in a news release that deputies found 48-year-old Sandra Pendergrass lying dead on a road in Willard Monday evening. She had suffered severe head trauma and a gunshot wound.

During the investigation of her death, the body of 48-year-old Todd Pendergrass was found in Dade County near Everton. Arnott said Pendergrass shot himself.

Arnott said that before he killed himself, Todd Pendergrass confessed to his daughter and brother that he had killed his wife.

The Springfield News-Leader reported this is at least the fourth time since April that a Springfield area-woman died in what authorities called murder caused by domestic violence.