On a Friday night in Lake Charles, Louisiana, the life of 43-year-old Cory Kerlegan was tragically cut short in a violent sequence of events that concluded as a murder-suicide. Kerlegan was discovered unresponsive in the passenger seat of a red Hyundai Sonata on East LaGrange Street just before 11 p.m., having been fatally shot.
The investigation swiftly uncovered a grim narrative of domestic strife.
The vehicle in which Kerlegan was found belonged to a woman who was the estranged wife of the man identified as the shooter, 43-year-old Malcolm Joseph Fontenot. It was revealed that Fontenot, after shooting Kerlegan, kidnapped his estranged wife, 43-year-old Ulacier Fontenot, at gunpoint. He then fled the scene in his own vehicle, a silver Kia Optima.
A Calcasieu Parish Sheriff's Office deputy spotted Fontenot's vehicle a short time later, initiating a pursuit when Fontenot ran a red light and refused to stop. During the high-speed chase, Ulacier Fontenot managed to make a desperate escape by jumping from the moving car. She was subsequently taken to a hospital for treatment and was expected to recover.
The chase continued until law enforcement deployed spike strips, successfully stopping Fontenot's vehicle. A SWAT team responded to the scene and, upon approaching the car, found Malcolm Fontenot inside, deceased from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The Lake Charles Police Department confirmed the case was being investigated as a murder-suicide.
