Maryland ? Police found a man and a woman dead from an apparent murder-suicide Friday afternoon in Trappe, Md., after a five-hour standoff that snarled beach traffic on Maryland’s Eastern Shore for five hours.

Troopers said John R. Spencer, 43, and his wife, Debra C. Spencer, 55, suffered gunshot wounds and were pronounced dead inside their home. The incident is being investigated as a murder-suicide, state police said in a news release.

The standoff began when a man called Maryland State Police around 10:30 a.m. and said he had shot and killed his wife. Police responded quickly to the home on Route 50, the main road to beaches in Maryland and Delaware. The highway was shut down in both directions for eight miles, and a nearby elementary school kept children inside.

Greg Shipley, a state police spokesman, said the phone call was the last contact authorities had with the caller.

“They tried calling him on the phone; they tried a bullhorn; they tried talking to him from outside, trying to make some kind of contact,” Shipley said.