LEWISTON – A young couple found lying in pools of blood in their Knox Street apartment Saturday died as the result of a murder-suicide, police concluded.

Autopsies performed Monday on the bodies of Billie Jo Smith, 22, and Raymond Tripp Jr., 30, revealed that Tripp used a large hunting knife to stab Smith multiple times before stabbing himself once in the abdomen.

The autopsies also revealed that Tripp swallowed a bunch of aspirin and other pills before killing himself.

The bodies were found in the couple’s second-floor apartment at 97 Knox St. at about 1 p.m. Saturday by Tripp’s brother-in-law and a neighbor who lived below them.

According to Stephen McCausland, a spokesman for the Maine State Police, Tripp and Smith left their two daughters, ages 2 years and 2 months, with Tripp’s sister and brother-in-law at some point on Friday.

When the sister and brother-in-law were unable to contact the couple Saturday morning, they went to their apartment. The brother-in-law and a neighbor climbed the fire escape, looked through a window and saw Tripp’s body on the floor, McCausland said.

Police arrived shortly after and found Smith’s body in another room.

The couple’s neighbors and relatives told detectives they didn’t know of any problems involving domestic violence.

“I never heard them fighting,” said Maurice Nadeau, who has lived at 99 Knox St. for 24 years.

Nadeau said the couple lived below him for a couple of years before recently moving to a bigger apartment behind him.

“I didn’t really know them,” Nadeau said. “I’d pass them in the halls, I’d say ‘hi,’ then they’d say ‘hi,’ and that was about it.”

On Monday, yellow caution tape was tied across the banister of the stairwell leading to the couple’s apartment. The bathroom window was open, and bottles of shampoo and shaving cream could be seen on the windowsill.

Court records show that Tripp’s recent criminal history included one conviction of operating a vehicle with a suspended license. He pleaded guilty to the charge on March 19.

Lewiston police responded to the couple’s apartment earlier last week after someone called police to report that Tripp might be suicidal, but they left after he persuaded the officers that he was OK, McClausland said.

“There is no readily apparent reason as to why this happened,” McClausland added.

According to police, Smith and Tripp never married. Smith was unemployed, and Tripp recently lost his job, but police still didn’t know Monday where he had worked.

The neighborhood

News of the murder-suicide traveled quickly through the downtown neighborhood over the weekend.

A woman who has lived at 95 Knox St. for five years with her young son didn’t know the young couple, but she said that their deaths were the last straw for her. Tired of the neighborhood’s high crime rate, she plans to move out by the end of the year.

“I just don’t feel safe,” she said.

The murder-suicide has also captured the attention of local domestic violence advocates.

Having occurred three and half months after another local man, Frank Gallant, was charged with strangling his girlfriend, Cherie Ann Andrews, to death in their Park Street apartment, the incident reinforces the need for more community involvement, said Chris Fenno, director of the Abused Women’s Advocacy Project.

“If we want to stop these murders, it is going to take all of our involvement,” Fenno said.

Although neighbors and relatives of Tripp and Smith didn’t report any obvious signs of domestic violence, Fenno found it hard to believe that someone didn’t hear something indicating a problem.

On Monday, Fenno and other AWAP employees met with a marketing firm to discuss ways to send a message to the community that one simple call to the police can save a life. They are considering kicking off a poster campaign, running advertisements and partnering with the Lewiston Police Department.

“The campaign will be geared toward the message, ‘If you hear something, say something,'” Fenno said.



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