Two Michigan City children lost both their parents Tuesday in a horrific murder-suicide.

What's worse, the kids witnessed their mother's murder as they waited for their school bus with her at the intersection of 425 West and 1000 North in northern LaPorte County Tuesday morning.

Police say 30-year-old Tonya Early of Michigan City was killed by 41-year-old David Streeting of LaPorte.

Police say Streeting was the father of Early's 8 and 10-year-old children.

Police say the two had lived together, but were never married; and described their relationship as "estranged."

It came to a tragic end for everyone involved Tuesday morning. Early’s ritual of waiting for the bus with her children turned traumatizing.

Police got the call shortly before 8:00am central time.

“We found a female victim lying on the pavement next to her vehicle, and (her) two children were with her at the time,” said LaPorte County Sheriff Michael Mollenhauer.

Of course, the bus still came.

“From what I understand the bus came up, and (the shooting) was just moments prior, just minutes earlier,” Mollenhauer said.

School officials say the 14 students on the bus also had to witness the aftermath.

Springfield school, the destination of the bus, found itself on lockdown.

“We had a person responsible for the shooting that had fled. Just minutes later we learned that he was in a vehicle that had fled north,” Mollenhauer said.

Police found Streeting's Jeep Cherokee about a half mile from the scene, and the swat team swarmed.

“They responded. They came through a wooded area to the vehicle that he was in. They located him and he is deceased also,” Mollenhauer said.

Police say it was a self-inflicted wound. The school came off of lock-down once Streeting was found.

“Of course it's a domestic situation, it's not like someone just came up, a stranger, and did this. So it could happen anywhere, but it is frightening. It's just devastating to know that I saw these children and their mother with their car on several occasions,” said Mike Dobrzeniecki, a neighbor.

“Especially for the kids to see something like that, they'll never get rid of that,” said Richard Stranad, another neighbor.

“That makes it the toughest,” Mollenhauer said.

While the incident is sure to haunt those who witnessed it, and leave scars on two families, there's some relief it wasn't worse.

“It's a shame it ended the way it did, but I'm glad it's done with,” Stranad said.

“I guess you could say everything's back to normal, or at least as close to normal as it can be right now,” Mollenhauer said.

Police say they're thankful Streeting stayed in his vehicle. They say it would have been very hard to find him if he had fled into the woods, it's a very rural area.

They're also thankful he didn't try to take his two children with him.

The bus went ahead to Springfield Elementary, and there were counselors on hand to help the kids deal with what they saw.

Meantime, the couple's two children were with family living nearby this afternoon.