SISTERSVILLE, W.Va., July 18 (UPI) -- An Ohio man charged with killing his former girlfriend and her sister in Michigan was found dead after a police standoff in West Virginia, police said.
Thomas Jack Fritz, 38, of Sylvania, Ohio, appeared to have died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after a standoff with U.S. marshals who staked out at a cabin Tuesday in Sistersville, W.Va., where Fritz was reported to have been holed up, the Tyler Star News in Sistersville reported.
U.S. marshals reported hearing a single gunshot. The Tyler County Sheriff's Office confirmed the man was Fritz, the newspaper said.
Fritz was charged with murder in the shooting deaths last week of his estranged girlfriend, Amy Lynn Merrill, 33, and Merrill's pregnant sister, Lisa Michelle Gritzmaker, 24, in Blissfield, Mich. He had gone to Merrill's home to discuss custody issues involving their 2-year-old son.
Fritz, an Iraq War veteran, was on parole following a 2007 conviction for sexual battery.
