Two adults killed in Northfield Township, two children abducted then rescued

(FOX 2) - It's a case of unbelievable violence where two adults were killed and two children kidnapped.

The children were being fostered inside a Washtenaw County home on Nollar Bend Drive in Northfield Township when the confrontation took place. On New Year's, police said they rescued one of two abducted young children on Rowley Court.

"I looked out, and they were like three or four police cars, and I saw somebody like, being taken away in handcuffs," said a neighbor who saw the rescue. 

Sources say the other child was rescued about two minutes away on Lexington Parkway near Rambling Road.

Their ages are 7 and 4 and were not related. 

Cops say both of them were taken from a home which served as a foster home for one of the children. 

Police called it a violent confrontation that led to the abductors allegedly shooting and killing two adults in the home and critically wounding a third all around 8:30 p.m. on New Year’s Day.

"Just strange. You know, we don’t have those kinds of things happen here," said neighbor Lee Maulbetsch.

When they got to the home, police say they found 74-year-old Stevie Ray Smith and 48-year-old Jennifer Lyn Bernhard, both of Northfield Township, dead.  

Investigators say her husband, 52-year-old Jeffrey Bernhard, was badly hurt and hospitalized in stable condition. 

FOX 2 has learned he’s an assistant director for the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System.

Investigative sources say the shooting is related to a child custody dispute, but FOX 2 is working to confirm the specifics. 

Police say the children are healthy and safe.