WESTBROOK (AP) – The deaths of the widow of a Maine National Guard soldier and her father have been ruled a murder-suicide, officials said Saturday.

The bodies of Lavinia Gelineau, 25, and her father Nicolae Onitiu, 51, were discovered in the basement of a Central Street house at around noon on Friday, said Stephen McCausland of the Maine Department of Public Safety. Westbrook Police responded to a call from Gelineau’s employer, McCausland said.

McCausland said Onitiu strangled Gelineau with a rope, then hanged himself. He said it was unclear whether the murder-suicide happened on Thursday night or Friday morning.

“This is a horrific case of domestic violence,” McCausland said.

He said Gelineau had voiced concerns for her safety to friends before her father arrived in Maine from Romania on Wednesday.

Autopsies on Gelineau and Onitiu were conducted Saturday at the state medical examiner’s office in Augusta.

Lavinia Gelineau’s mother, who was estranged from Onitiu, had been living with her in Maine but left last week to stay with relatives in Vermont, McCausland said.

Gelineau’s parents had a history of domestic violence in Romania, he said.

Christopher Gelineau grew up in Starksboro Vt., but lived in Portland. He died when a roadside bomb destroyed his Humvee on April 20.

Last May, during her own graduation from the University of Southern Maine, Lavinia Gelineau also accepted a diploma for her husband.

Christopher Gelineau was one semester away from receiving his bachelor’s degree from the School of Applied Science, Engineering and Technology when he was called to active duty.

His wife earned degrees in English and business administration.

Gelineau joined the Maine National Guard while a student at the University of Southern Maine. That is where he met Lavinia, an immigrant from Romania. The two married three years ago.

After her husband’s death, Lavinia Gelineau, who had grown close to her in-laws, held a news conference at the Eden, Vt., home of her father-in-law, John Gelineau, to speak out against the war that had taken her husband’s life.

“I am very proud of my husband,” she said. “I am not proud of his reason for being there.”

Reached at his home on Saturday, John Gelineau said, “I don’t have any words right now.”

Christopher’s mother, Victoria Chicoine of Starksboro, Vt., told the Portland Press Herald the loss of Lavinia was overwhelming, coming a year after she lost her only son.

“She is my daughter,” she said.

Chicoine said her daughter-in-law’s relationship with her mother was “very, very good.” She added, “Her relationship with her father was not so good.”

AP-ES-04-02-05 1839EST