November 25--  There was an accidental death and a suspected murder-suicide over Thanksgiving weekend in the Vidalia area.

Toombs County Sheriff Junior Kight reports an elderly Toombs County man died of burns when his clothing caught fire Friday afternoon.  Seventy-eight-year old David Howell was using an acetelyne torch to weld a tractor part at his farm home near the Providence community.

Meanwhile, Saturday afternoon a shooting occurred in the 900 block of North Circle Drive in Vidalia.  A 28-year-old woman identified as Maranda Marie Nichols was killed in the shooting which occurred at the curb in front of her mother's residence where she had been talking to 28-year-old Samuel Tellu of Savannah.  She suffered a fatal headwound and fell in the street.  Vidalia police launched a search for Tellu who left the scene in a 2005 Mercury Mountaineer.

The vehicle was found early Sunday morning in the parking lot of Calvary Grace Baptist Church on Highway 280 in Ailey.  Inside police found Tellu dead of a suspected self-inflicted gunshot wound.  Montgomery County Coroner Joe Strickland says he understands Tellu is a soldier stationed at Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah. 

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is assisting Vidalia police and Montgomery County authorities with the investigation.