APEX, N.C.  – A mom and her teen daughter were found shot to death in a home near Apex early Saturday and the suspect in the incident has been found dead, the Wake County Sheriff’s Office said.

Wake County authorities received a call for checking on the welfare of the occupants in a house located at 7628 Humie Olive Road. The call was dispatched at approximately 12:45 a.m. When officers arrived on scene they found two women dead from apparent gunshot wounds inside the home.

The victims have been identified as Melissa Mitchell McLain, 44, and Ashley Nicole Fite, 17, who lived at the Humie Olive Road home.

Ashley Fite in a Facebook photo

The follow-up investigation revealed a suspect – Lemuel Gabriel Miller, 47. Miller was also a resident of the house.

McLain and Ashley were mother and daughter, a neighbor at their home told WNCN. Ashley had graduated from Holly Springs High School on Friday, according to family members.

Miller, who was McLain’s boyfriend, was a former U.S. Marine, Harrison said. Ashley had planned to enlist to become a Marine this coming Spring, family members told WNCN.

The focus Saturday evening was on remembering McLain and Fite.

Family members were heartbroken and say McLain had another teenage daughter and that Fite had only moved in with her mother recently.

A memorial page has already been started by family members on Facebook. Friends writing that they “cannot believe this is real,” that she “will forever be in our hearts,” and that “she was funny, smart, and I remember this vividly she always tried to help other people.”

The women were found after a phone call was made by Miller to a friend on Friday night. The friend then called deputies to conduct a “welfare check” at the home — where McLain and Ashley were then found dead, Harrison said.

“He was a troubled man,” a neighbor said of Miller.

The woman, who didn’t want to be identified, is one of Miller’s neighbors and says she woke up early Saturday to police surrounding his home.

“There were like 20, 25 police cars when I got out and looked. That’s when I knew it wasn’t a wreck,” the woman said.

Another neighbor tells WNCN that Melissa Mitchell McLain was dating Miller and lived at his house with her daughter.

“I know several women he had dated that left because of his violent nature,” the neighbor said.

The Wake County Sheriff’s Office had issued a BOLO (Be On the Lookout) for Miller. At approximately 8 a.m., Miller and a vehicle registered to him was located in the 1400 block of Cooper Store Road in Harnett County. Miller was found dead from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The investigation is ongoing.