Three people are dead after an apparent murder-suicide Thursday afternoon.
The story began when authorities received a report, routed through Cannon County via cell phone, that a man was concerned about his children, and asked that police check the residence on Allen's Chapel Road where the children were staying.
The boy and girl in question were found unharmed at the home, but police found the bodies of 21-year-old Heather Nichole Eley and her step-mother, 42-year-old Lori Ann Eley, in the house.
The women had both been shot and stabbed. 
After a brief pursuit Thursday afternoon, the man believed to be responsible for the deaths of the two women shot himself inside his vehicle on Rolling Acres Road.
The man, 22-year-old Brandon Michael Gray, clung to life until Friday evening, when he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Gray was apparently Heather Eley's estranged boyfriend.
Gray called 911 from his cell phone at 3:45 p.m. on Thursday, requesting that police visit the residence where the women were found to check on the welfare of his children, telling the dispatcher that he felt that something might be wrong there, according to law enforcement officials.
The home is located near the city limits just off Cookeville Highway, so officers from the Smithville Police Department and DeKalb County Sheriff's Department were dispatched to the scene.
The men found the front door of the house locked, but were able to gain entry to the residence through a back door.
The lawmen found the two children unharmed, but soon discovered the bodies of the two women in the living room and kitchen.
It appeared that the women had been shot and stabbed, according to law-enforcement officials.
The children were removed from the residence, and detectives were summoned to the scene.
The children, who belong to Gray and Heather Eley, were initially placed in the care of the Department of Children Services.
Gray was identified as a person of interest, and police began searching for him.
A deputy soon spotted a person he suspected to be Gray pulling out of the parking lot of the Mapco Express parking lot on East Broad Street in a green Mazda.
It was soon discovered that the car was registered to one of the victims, and when the deputy attempted to pull the vehicle over the driver refused to stop.
Police pursued Gray to the intersection of Rolling Acres Road, where the car pulled over and came to a stop.
Gray apparently refused orders to exit the vehicle, and after a brief pause the report of a firearm was heard.
Authorities rushed to the vehicle and found that the  Gray had shot himself in the head.
Gray was taken to DeKalb Community Hospital, and then driven to Vanderbilt, as inclement weather prohibited his being airlifted.
According to the DeKalb County Sheriff Patrick Ray, authorities have the pistol that Gray used to shoot himself.
They also recovered kitchen knives which may have been used to stab the two women from the home.
The bodies of the two victims have been sent to Nashville for autopsies.
The case remains under investigation by the DeKalb County Sheriff's Department and TBI Special Agent Billy Miller, and authorities will not yet comment officially on any possible motive for the slayings.