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TRAVERSE CITY Word of a suspected homicide in a Barlow Street home percolated through an east Traverse City neighborhood as authorities investigated the scene.

Mike Wolf first noticed a pair of Traverse City Police Department cars parked outside a neighbor's home when he went to fetch the Sunday paper at about 6:30 a.m.

Hours later, Cymantha Kostecki drove past the scene, complete with police tape, police cars and a mobile Michigan State Police crime scene investigation laboratory. She returned to her nearby home to find a message from her sister detailing a suspected slaying inside the taped-off home, but no news coverage of the incident.

The message left Kostecki with lingering concern about the safety of her neighborhood.

"OK, well, did something happen and someone's on the run?" she said.

Authorities released details of what they suspect happened Monday morning, about 29 hours after the suspected stabbing that left a man, 56-year-old Daniel Floyd Mckaye, dead.

Central dispatchers received a 911 call from a 65-year-old Traverse City man on Sunday at 4:02 a.m. The man said he had stabbed Mckaye after a fight in the man's rented home on the 1100 block of Barlow Street, police Chief Jeff O'Brien said.

Officers arrived soon after to find Mckaye dead. They attempted to give him CPR and use a clotting agent to stop blood flow from the three stab wounds to his torso, O'Brien said. Emergency medical services workers declared Mckaye was dead.

Officers as of Monday named the home's renter as both the sole suspect and a possible victim in the case. The man told police he acted in self-defense and was sent to Munson Medical Center with stab wounds after he called 911, O'Brien said.

He was not arrested as of Monday afternoon. There was not enough evidence to prove he acted illegally, or not in self-defense, Grand Traverse County Chief Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Noelle Moeggenberg said.

"Something led to the argument that led to this," she said. "We don't think the public needs to be concerned that he's out."

The dispute between the man and Mckaye started early Sunday, a witness confirmed to police. That witness a 56-year-old man said he left the Barlow Street home before the suspected stabbing.

"He said they were getting into a heated argument and he got out of there," O'Brien said.

All the men had been drinking, O'Brien said.

Officers took "several knives," including a carving knife with a 6-7 inch blade, when searching the home. They are awaiting the results of an autopsy and a Michigan State Police crime scene investigation to determine what led to Mckaye's death.

"Science is going to have to tell us what happened," O'Brien said.

Neighbors, until then, will be left to wonder, Kostecki said. She and others in the Barlow Street area have an unofficial neighborhood watch-type agreement to exchange information they might learn about crimes in the area.

"Now everyone is speculating, and will continue to speculate until we find out what happened because it's close to home," Kostecki said.

O'Brien said Traverse City residents concerned with the daylong wait to release information about the suspected homicide should call him directly. His phone number is 231-995-5155.

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UPDATE: Police investigate suspected homicide - Traverse City Record Eagle