High school couple are found shot dead in a car in a double suicide just hours after posting smiley selfies on Facebook  

  • Two students from Williamsport Area High School in Pennsylvania were found dead from self-inflicted gunshot wounds Tuesday
  • Officials have declined to release names of deceased, but friends identified them on social media as Annika Monique and Brenden Shipman
  • Monique was a high school senior and Shipman, 16, was a junior; the pair had been dating since April 2016 
  • Monique and Shipman each shared selfies on their Facebook pages just hours before they committed suicide  

By Associated Press and Snejana Farberov For Dailymail.com

Published: 11:47 EDT, 2 November 2016 | Updated: 18:04 EDT, 2 November 2016

Two Pennsylvania high school students have been discovered shot dead in what investigators are calling a suspected double suicide.  

Police say the bodies of the teenage boy and girl were found in a parked car late Tuesday afternoon near a boat ramp at Rose Valley Lake, about 80 miles north of the state capital of Harrisburg.

State police say a handgun was found at the scene.

Two Pennsylvania high school students, identified by friends on social media as Brenden Shipman (left) and Annika Monique (right), were found dead in a double suicide Tuesday 

Final photo: Shipman, 16, shared this selfie with Monique on his Facebook page at 8pm Monday, just hours before the pair's deaths 

Monique uploaded this image on her Facebook page 20 minutes after her boyfriend 

The county coroner says the deaths appear to have been self-inflicted but did not release other details. 

The Williamsport Area School District told PennLive.com the male victim was a junior at Williamsport Area High School and the girl was a senior.

Officials have declined to release the names of the deceased citing their young age and the circumstances surrounding their deaths, but friends and classmates identified them on social media as Annika Monique and Brenden Shipman. 

A family friend on Wednesday launched a GoFundMe campaign to help cover Shipman's funeral expenses. 

The description of the online fundraiser revealed that Shipman was 16 years old.

Tragic couple: According to information shared on Facebook, the teens had been dating since April 2016  

Schoolmates: Both Shipman and Monique attended Williamsport Area High School, where the boy was a junior and the girl was a senior 

Shipman's Facebook page indicates that he and Annika Monique had been dating since April of this year. 

Just before 9pm on Monday, Shipman took to Facebook for the last time, sharing a selfie that showed him and Monique embracing and smiling into the camera.

About 20 minutes later, his girlfriend uploaded a similar photo onto her page showing Shipman kissing the side of her head.  

On Tuesday, police officers and the teenagers' relatives began searching for them when they failed to show up for school, reported the Williamsport Sun-Gazette. 

At around 4pm, a relative of one of the victims made a gruesome discovery when he came upon the pair shot inside a car at Rose Valley Lake in Gamble Township. 

Paramedics who were called to the scene pronounced both Shipman and Monique dead.

Investigators do not know at this time why the young couple decided to take their lives.

Those who knew the young couple, pictured here earlier this year in formal attire, were shocked that the teens decided to end their lives 

Friends remembered Annika as a spirited girl who loved to dance. Brenden was described was a sweet and loving 16-year-old

Friends of Brenden and Annika and parents at Williamsport Area High School took to social media Wednesday to express their shock at the sad news and extended condolences to the families of the young couple.

The mother of Monique's classmate described the senior in a touching Facebook tribute as a 'truly spirited soul' and a' kind and funny young lady' who will be missed.

One of the girl's friends wrote in a status update Tuesday: 'My heart is is heavy I was just talking to you today you have always been one of my closest friends and now your [sic] gone I love you girl so much fly high angle I love you Annika Monique RIP.'

Owen Sampsell, a close friend of Shipman’s, wrote in a tribute to the pair that they will be sorely missed by all.

‘Everyone at school even teachers are bawling. You hear the cries echoing in the hall the tears running down the face of those who cared,’ he added. 

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