WESTPORT (AP) – State police on Wednesday released the identifications of a man and woman who were found dead inside their home as a couple who had been married for 65 years. Police were treating the case as a murder-suicide.

The two were identified as Ronald Templeman, 86, and his 98-year-old wife, Hazel. Their bodies were being examined at the state medical examiner’s office in Augusta, a day after they were discovered in the couple’s home.

Officials from the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Department found the bodies after Templeman called Wiscasset police Tuesday afternoon to say his wife had died, said spokesman Stephen McCausland of the state Public Safety Department.

When deputies arrived, Templeman was dead in the entryway and his wife’s body was found on the floor in the dining room.

Both died of apparent gunshot wounds, McCausland said.

A note was found by Templeman’s body, along with financial papers and instructions on whom to contact within the family. Two handguns were also found by Templeman’s body, the spokesman said.

State police said the couple had lived for decades in Westport, a rural mid-coastal town of about 700 residents in Lincoln County, and were married for 65 years.

McCausland said Hazel Templeman was the oldest homicide victim in Maine in at least 30 years.

A review of crime records covering the last three decades also showed Mrs. Templeman to be the oldest domestic violence victim during that period.

Maine has had some homicide victims who were in their 90s, but none of them were domestic violence-related, McCausland said.

State police were continuing to investigate other details of the case.

Copy the Story Link