A handyman suspected of killing a woman in her Burlington City home fatally shot himself at a motel, authorities say

A handyman suspected of killing a 61-year-old woman inside her Burlington City home earlier this week fatally shot himself at a South Jersey motel Thursday night as he was being approached by investigators, authorities said Friday.

Kenneth Mackintosh, 51, occasionally did work for Carla Nesmith in her Earl Street home.

Her body, bludgeoned and stabbed, was discovered Wednesday afternoon by a tenant who rented a room at Nesmith’s residence and had just returned home, authorities said.

Mackintosh had been at Nesmith’s home Wednesday morning, the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office said. On Thursday night, authorities said, he was at the Travel Inn motel on Route 38 in Lumberton, where investigators from the Burlington City Police Department and the prosecutor’s office spotted him leaving his room. As they approached, he placed a .38-caliber handgun to his head and pulled the trigger, authorities said.

He was taken by helicopter to Cooper University Hospital in Camden, where he was pronounced dead shortly afterward. The gun he used to kill himself belonged to Nesmith and had been taken from her home, the prosecutor’s office said. The motive behind her slaying remains unclear, authorities said.

» READ MORE: A woman was stabbed and bludgeoned to death in her Burlington City home, police say

In a statement, prosecutor Scott Coffina expressed his condolences to Nesmith’s family and friends. "We are grateful that none of the officers involved in the investigation was injured when the subject chose to take his own life rather than face justice for his crime,” he said.