Brighton police still investigating motive in murder-suicide

'It's just heart-wrenching, " Fox said

BRIGHTON, Mich. – Police in Brighton believe a mother killed her 5-year-old daughter before taking her own life in an apparent murder-suicide.

It happened inside a home on North 2nd Street near Whitney Street, but the timeline is tricky because investigators think their bodies may have been there for days.

“Oh, I was just sick. I was just sick,” Linda Fox said. 

Fox lives just around the corner from the home.

Police said 38-year old Melissa Partee had depression and anxiety and was scared of losing her child. Police said she killed her daughter and then herself with a single gunshot to the head.

“When you see a little child who’s taken, you know, it’s just heart-wrenching, “ Fox said. 

Police showed up to the home to do a welfare check after the father was concerned when the mother of his daughter didn’t show up to do a custody exchange.

Officers saw the woman’s car in the front of the home. The landlord let them in and that’s when they found both the mother and daughter dead. 

Police say preliminary autopsy reports suggest the mother strangled the daughter. Police also said everything happened days ago.

“I can’t fathom that. I’m a mother myself, I got grandkids. My grandkids are almost 6, I just can’t fathom,” Fox said.


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Kayla is a Web Producer for ClickOnDetroit. Before she joined the team in 2018 she worked at WILX in Lansing as a digital producer.