HOLLAND TWP, Mich.- A statewide investigation continues Monday as officials try to uncover how a father and daughter were both found dead Sunday nearly 100 miles apart.
Police are stopping short of calling the case a murder-suicide, though they are ruling the death of 31-year-old Stacey Grotenhuis in Holland Township a homicide.
Her father, 59-year old Gary Volkers, was found dead in Leroy Township in Osceola County. Police say his death is considered suspicious.
FOX 17 spoke with Grotenhuis’ former roommate, who says she's devastated to learn of her friend's death.
“I talked to her and she was at her dad's house and they were making soup and she had a job interview the next day,” Carly Svoboda said of a phone conversation with Grotenhuis last week.
She says life seemed good for Grotenhuis, who moved home to live with her dad in July.
“She grew up with her father, they were very close, if she ever needed anything she`d call her dad and he would take care of it,” she said.
Svoboda said she was shocked to learn about Grotenhuis’ death along with the death of her father. She says Grotenhuis was sweet and easy to love, that she loved animals and going to the zoo and watching her favorite show Keeping Up With the Kardashians every week.
Investigators are not calling Gary Volkers a suspect in his daughter’s murder, though they say they don’t believe there is any danger to the community.
They’re asking for anyone who may know anything about the LeRoy Township or Holland Township deaths to call the Michigan State Police Rockford Post at 616-866-4411.
