LAKE CHARLES - Police are investigating a murder-suicide in southwest Louisiana that involved a kidnapping and a high-speed chase.

KATC reports officers first began investigating the situation Friday night in Lake Charles after 43-year-old Cory Kerlegan was found dead inside a vehicle on E LaGrange Street.

The vehicle where Kerlegan's body was found belonged to a woman who knew the suspected shooter, 43-year-old Malcolm Fontenot. After the shooting, police said Fontenot kidnapped the woman at gunpoint and fled the scene in another vehicle.

Calcasieu Parish sheriff's deputies spotted that vehicle a short while later, and a chase ensued when Fontenot ran a red light and refused to stop for law enforcement.

At some point in the pursuit, officials said the woman jumped from the vehicle to escape. She was taken to a hospital but is expected to be OK.

Officers continued to pursue Fontenot, eventually deploying spike strips to force the vehicle to stop. A SWAT team responded to the scene and soon found Fontenot hunched over in the driver's seat, dead from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Lake Charles police said the investigation is ongoing.