A Man Said His Girlfriend Was Missing, and Then She Was Found Dead by Suicide. Police Believe He Killed Her

Authorities say that a man who said his girlfriend was missing in Hawaii was found dead from a gunshot wound he gave himself.

An investigation into the disappearance of Ashley M. Kuregian, 38, led police to search a home in Kea’au, Hawaii, on May 23. This was reported by the Hawaii Police Department in a news release. Officers said they let the people inside know they were there and then heard what sounded like a gunshot.

When police got inside, they found a guy who turned out to be Kuregian’s boyfriend, Matthew A. Poole, dead from a gunshot wound. There was also a gun found. According to the report, an autopsy later showed that he killed himself with a gun to the head.

Two days before, on May 21, Poole told police that Kuregian was missing because she hadn’t been seen in about a week.

In the evening of May 23, police searched Poole’s house and found clues that led them to look for Kuregian in the Orchidland Estates Subdivision. The release says that around 7 p.m., police found a person that was “in advanced stages of decomposition.” Police said the remains were eventually identified as Kuregian and were found on an empty, undeveloped land in Kea’au.

According to the release, the medical examiner found that Kuregian died of a single gunshot wound to the head. This meant that she was killed. Police say they are now looking into the case of the missing person as a murder-suicide.

A GoFundMe page set up after Kuregian’s death remembered her as the mother of an 11-year-old daughter called Delilah.

“Our sweet and beautiful Ashley (Birdie) Kuregian was tragically taken from this world by another,” Michelle McDaniel, who was in charge of the fundraiser, wrote.

As of June 4, more than $10,000 had been donated to the cause. McDaniel said that the money would be used for funeral costs and to set up a college fund for Kuregian’s daughter.