The Crenshaw County Sheriff’s Department is investigating an apparent murder-suicide that occurred shortly after midnight Saturday morning on South Gravel Hill Road.

Sheriff Charles West said that Christopher Alan Phelps, 37, apparently shot and killed his girlfriend, Laura Jean Drost, 28, of Eclectic, before killing himself.

The incident is still under investigation, but Chief Deputy Jimmy Lecroy said it appears to be a domestic dispute that escalated.