A 72-year-old woman found dead outside her burning Houston County home shot her husband multiple times, torched their home, and then took her own life, the sheriff said Wednesday.

Deputies and medics responded Friday morning, Dec. 29, to the 100 block of Webb to Kinsey Road after receiving reports of a house on fire.

“At first it came out as a structure fire where there appeared to be somebody inside looking out a window,’’ Houston County Sheriff Donald Valenza said during a Wednesday press conference.

First responders from multiple agencies arrived to find a woman in the back yard. She was pronounced dead on the scene.

Coroner Robert Byrd confirmed the identity of the woman as Jolaine Chandler.

Valenza said Jolaine Chandler shot her husband, identified by WDHN as 75-year-old Edgar Chandler, three times and then set fire to the home in four different places.

Jolaine Chandler, he said, then went to the yard and fatally shot herself.

Edgar Chandler was hospitalized with injuries not believed to be life-threatening.

Valenza said family members told authorities Jolaine Chandler was suffering from early signs of dementia.

The investigation is ongoing.