The man died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Harborcreek Township on Wednesday morning.

A Rochester, New York-area man identified as a suspect in the death of his wife and an assault on his mother in New York was found dead near a Harborcreek Township truck stop on Wednesday at about the time authorities in New York were learning of the crimes he is accused of committing.

The body of Arnold Ford Jr., 52, was found in his truck on the property of a towing company across from the entrance to the TA Travel Center on Depot Road near the Interstate 90 interchange after Pennsylvania State Police troopers were called there to investigate a report of a man slumped over in a vehicle, Capt. Dan Hines, commander of state police Troop E in Lawrence Park Township, said Thursday. Troopers were dispatched to the property on Wednesday at about 10:45 a.m., according to state police.

Erie County Coroner Lyell Cook pronounced Ford dead at the scene at 11:35 a.m. Wednesday. He said Ford died of a gunshot wound to the head and ruled the death a suicide.

Ford was still holding a firearm when he was found, and it appears the suicide happened not long before the body was found, Cook said Thursday.

No one had claimed Ford's body as of Thursday morning, Cook said.

The Monroe County, New York, Sheriff's Office reported in a news release issued on Wednesday that Ford, of Penfield, New York, was identified as a person of interest in the death of a woman found at a residence in Penfield on Wednesday at 10:28 a.m., and the assault of another woman who was found unresponsive at a residence in Riga, New York, on Wednesday at 11:10 a.m.

According to the release, deputies had gone to the Penfield residence to check on the welfare of someone when they found the deceased woman, whom they did not identify and whose death was ruled a homicide. A follow-up investigation led deputies to the Riga residence to check the welfare of other family members, and they found the unresponsive woman whom they identified as 75-year-old Florence Ford.

The Rochester Democrat & Chronicle reported on Wednesday that Florence Ford is Arnold Ford's mother and that the unnamed woman was Arnold Ford's wife. Information on Florence Ford's condition was not available Thursday.

The Monroe County Sheriff's Office put out an all-points bulletin for Ford, and utilizing information and technology including license-plate readers developed information that led to "a suburb outside of Erie, Pennsylvania," according to information in the news release.

Investigators from the sheriff's office were sent to Pennsylvania as part of the ongoing investigation, officials wrote in the release. An official with the sheriff's office said in an e-mail late Thursday morning that no more information is being released at this time.

Tim Hahn can be reached at 870-1731 or by email. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ETNhahn.