DIXFIELD – People who worked with and knew a Rumford woman found shot to death Wednesday night in a car on a dirt road in East Dixfield are devastated.

Most of those contacted Friday in the Rumford area declined to comment about Nancy Smith, 47, citing respect for her family and their privacy.

Smith was in the process of breaking off a 26-year relationship with Melvin Rocky Bishop, 57, of East Dixfield, when Bishop shot and killed her about 11 p.m. while the two were parked in their car on Valley Road, said Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety.

Bishop then committed suicide, shooting himself in the head, McCausland said.

“This was a tragic case of a man refusing to let go, and resorting to extreme violence as a solution, and a poor one at that,” McCausland said Friday afternoon.

Rumford Hospital spokeswoman Jane Bubar said Friday afternoon that Smith had worked in the occupational health office at Swift River Health Care on Franklin Street in Rumford for 10 years.

“She was also working on the hospital’s Christmas Committee, which plans Christmas parties for adults and juveniles,” Bubar said.

Smith, who had also worked for the hospital and the Elsemore Dixfield Clinic in Dixfield, was a member of the Swift River Wellness Team.

“They have monthly meetings at the Elsemore Clinic and she would plan the breakfasts and bring the food in,” Bubar added.

Swift River Health Care was closed Thursday, “because of the tragedy,” as in-house counselors attended to Smith’s co-workers, Bubar said.

Tina Sirois of Rumford, a co-worker of Smith’s, said Smith’s sudden death was “hard to believe.”

“Nancy was a good person to work for. She was a very kind-hearted person, and kind of quiet. She was very pleasant, so this is really a shock,” Sirois said.

Smith and Bishop built their own house in a remote backcountry section of East Dixfield on Rover Road about a mile from where their bodies were found.

Buster Savage of East Dixfield, a minister and electrician, said Friday evening that Smith and Bishop had no neighbors.

Savage said he didn’t know Smith but knew of Bishop, whom he said was from Massachusetts. He did electrical wiring for Bishop.

“I done a lot of work for him,” Savage said. “He always used me good. He worked around his home and did odd jobs. I don’t know a thing about him though, I never bothered to ask him.”

Savage said the couple had a seasonal trailer park, Grover’s Hideaway, on their property and a sawmill, part of which burned some years back.

“I couldn’t believe it was him when I heard (about the shootings). He seemed so easy going. Nothing bothered him,” Savage added.

The couple was found shortly after midnight by Dixfield police Officer Timothy Gould, who was on routine patrol.

McCausland said Gould came across the 1998 Nissan hatchback, which had its headlights on and the motor running, on Valley Road, a dirt road off Severy Hill Road, which connects with Route 17 in East Dixfield.

McCausland said Smith’s body was in the driver’s seat, partially out of the vehicle with the driver’s door partly open.

Bishop’s body was found in the car, as was the gun.

According to the Medical Examiner’s Office, both died from a single gunshot wound to the head.