HALIFAX COUNTY, Va. – Halifax County authorities believe a former state trooper killed his wife before taking his own life on Christmas Eve.

Sheriff’s deputies were called to a home on Bellvue Road near the town of Halifax around 9:30 Tuesday morning after a passerby witnessed part of the incident and phoned 911. They found a man and a woman lying alongside the road, dead of gunshot wounds.

The shooter has been identified as 44-year-old Phillip Leath. The victim was his 37-year-old wife, Lori Leath.

A rifle was recovered at the scene and authorities are carrying their deaths as an apparent murder-suicide.

Both bodies have been sent to the State Medical Examiner’s Office in Roanoke for autopsies.

Phillip Leath had worked as a state trooper in the Halifax County area from 1999 until about two years ago. His wife was a dental hygienist.