HARVEST — When a 9-year-old Wichita, Kan., girl could not understand why her mother wouldn’t awaken Saturday afternoon, she would soon learn the terrible truth — 26-year-old Debrie Jefferson was dead from a gunshot wound to the head.

But the reason the young mother of four was killed may never be known: The man accused in connection with her death killed himself Tuesday night at his parents’ home at 14499 Morningside Drive.

For five days, the actions of Marcus Warmley, 23, were difficult to fathom. According to Limestone County Chief Investigator Stanley McNatt, Warmley left the Brighton home where he lived with his grandparents for the 90-minute drive to class at Alabama State University in Montgomery and said he would be late returning Friday night. When he did not appear, his grandparents, Mary and Edward Hill, reported Warmley missing Saturday to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office in Birmingham.

Jefferson County investigators were notified sometime later that day from the Wichita Police Department that Warmley was wanted on a first-degree murder warrant in connection with Jefferson’s death. Authorities in Jefferson County and Brighton were told to be on the lookout for Warmley, who they thought might return to his grandparents’ home.

Instead, Warmley came to Limestone County to the home of his parents, Timothy and Vera Warmley.

The Warmleys first learned their son was wanted for murder when they went Tuesday to talk with Jefferson County authorities about the missing persons report, McNatt said.

They came home to Harvest with the intent to pack and go find their son but found him already there.

When they urged him to give himself up to Limestone County authorities, Warmley went into a bedroom, ostensibly to change clothes, then locked the door and shot himself at about 9:55 p.m., according to Limestone County Coroner Mike West.

Limestone County Sheriff Mike Blakely said he is sending the gun used in Warmley’s suicide to Wichita authorities for a ballistics comparison. Warmley’s body will not be sent for an autopsy.

“It’s a pretty clear-cut situation,” he said. “He was inside the room with the door locked.”

Jefferson, 26, was found shot to death in the bedroom of her home Saturday afternoon, said Capt. Randy Landen, commander of the Wichita Police Department Crimes Against Persons division.

The children — ages 9, 6, 2 and 1 — were apparently sleeping when Jefferson and Warmley returned from an evening out late Friday, he said. When the children awoke, they assumed their mother was still sleeping.

After hours passed, the children tried to wake Jefferson and then tried to find a cellular phone to call for help before resorting to stopping someone on the road in front of their home.

The passerby entered the house “to check her welfare,” Landen said, then saw blood and called 911 at about 1 p.m.

“The officers found her dead from head trauma,” he said. An autopsy completed Sunday showed Jefferson was shot once in the head, he said.

“Based on the information we received, we were able to identify Marcus Warmley as a suspect,” Landen said. “We got a first-degree murder warrant and contacted local departments and provided them with the information and contacted U.S. Marshals.”

Warmley became a suspect late Saturday or early Sunday, Landen said, and Jefferson County authorities were alerted. Blakely said the Limestone County Sheriff’s Department did not receive a be-on-the-lookout alert on Warmley.

The U.S. Marshals Service was contacted because Warmley would have to cross several states if he were to return to his grandparents’ home.

“By the time we identified him as a suspect, we looked at maps and could see he had 880 miles to drive,” Landen said.

Warmley’s path from Saturday to Tuesday is unknown, he said.

The Wichita Police Department did not have any reports of domestic abuse on Jefferson and Warmley, Landen said.

“I’m told they have known each other for a couple of years, then there was a gap in their contact and they recently began communicating by phone and e-mail,” he said. “I don’t know at this point exactly what precipitated it. It’s tough to discern when I can’t get anything from her or him.”

Mike West said he was told Warmley was to graduate from college next week.

Jefferson’s children, temporarily taken into custody of child protective services in Kansas, were released to their grandmother, whose name was not released, who took them to her home in Texas, according to Wichita Police Department spokesman Gordon Bassham.

Funeral arrangements for Warmley will be announced today by Brighton Funeral Home in Bessemer.