Elderly couple found dead in home were longtime Jackson residents, business owners

JACKSON COUNTY, MI – Virginia and Duane Zwick were longtime Jackson residents and business owners before they were found dead in their Summit Township lakeside home.

Duane Zwick, 75, owned a truck and trailer equipment shop and his wife Virginia Zwick, 74, ran administrative duties using her experience working in her family’s restaurant, Jackson Coney Island, and as an accountant for The Jackson Citizen Patriot, according to Duane and Virginia Zwick’s obituaries.

MLive reached out to multiple members of the couple’s family for this story. Several declined to speak, stating the couple would have wanted privacy, while others didn’t return messages.

Duane Zwick became co-owner of Automotive Service Co. in the 1960s alongside his brother Craig Zwick after taking the business over from their parents, who founded the company in Jackson in 1927. The company specializes in selling common and hard-to-find utility truck and trailer parts as well part installation services for vehicles.

The couple had two children together, Theodore and Angela Zwick. Angela, 46, died April 21, 2022.

When Virginia Zwick wasn’t helping to run the family business, she loved to travel, see the world and have fun with those around her, according to her obituary, which noted she had a “mad sense of style.”

Duane Zwick enjoyed swap meets often buying and/or selling several different collectables including vintage motorcycles, American history items and antique model trains, according to his obituary.

When he wasn’t pursuing his hobbies, he was spending time with his wife and his beloved basset hounds that stole his heart when he was originally only asked to watch over them for his son, the obituary states.

The couple was discovered about 1:30 p.m. May 13 in the 5000 block of Woodland Road. Both suffered fatal gunshot wounds. The preliminary investigation by the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office indicated the couple died in a murder-suicide.

Related: Murder-suicide suspected in elderly couple’s death in lakeside home

The home, a classically designed residence with a well-kept old wood exterior, is in a community of lake houses on the southern shore of Brown Lake.

Anyone experiencing thoughts of suicide can seek help from the 24-hour National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by dialing 988.

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