UPDATE: Rochester Teacher Killed in Bloomfield Murder-Suicide

A French teacher for Rochester Community Schools was found dead Tuesday night in an apparent murder-suicide outside her ex-husband's Bloomfield Township home, say.

Investigators confirmed Wednesday that Susan Pawlecki Jarrell of Rochester Hills, 45, and Kenneth Wayne Jarrell, 46, of Bloomfield Township, died Tuesday. They divorced last year. 

Officers responded to the 2200 block of Bedford Road after 911 callers reported multiple shots fired in their neighborhood shortly after 8 p.m., a news release stated.

Lt. Phil Langmeyer said the initial investigation shows Kenneth Jarrell shot and killed Susan Jarrell with a rifle while she sat in her vehicle parked outside his home. He then apparently turned the weapon on himself.

The vehicle was removed from the scene and processed for evidence by the Oakland County Crime Scene Unit. Officers also scoured the front lawn for evidence and cleanup after daybreak this morning in a neighborhood that is densely populated with single-family residences with some children. Investigators left the scene shortly after 9 a.m. today.

Langmeyer said Kenneth Jarrell rented the home and officials do not yet know if there was a planned meeting for the couple or some other confrontation that spurred the incident. He had not lived there very long and there were no prior calls to police for service to that address.

Susan Jarrell lived in Rochester Hills and the couple has school-aged children. The children, who live with their mother, were not at the Bloomfield Township home when the incident took place, Langmeyer said.

On Wednesday morning, parents of students at Stoney Creek and Hart Middle School, where Susan Jarrell also was a teacher, received a letter from the schools' principals.

"The Hart and Stoney Creek staff and community are deeply saddened at this time. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Jarrell family," stated the letter from Stoney Creek Principal Larry Goralski and Hart Principal Rachel Guinn.

Bloomfield Hills based-attorney Lorne Gold represented Susan Jarrell in the divorce.

"Susan was a wonderful person and dedicated mother who devoted every ounce of energy and her resources to her children," Gold said by telephone Wednesday morning. "It's a great tragedy and a horrific loss."

Langmeyer could not recall exactly when the township's last homicide was, but said the department conducted a full response to the scene with road officers, on-call detectives, department command staff and administration, including Chief Kirt Bowden.

"It's an unusual occurrence here and we would rather have too many people involved than take the chance of missing something," he said.