Julie Bullard was an established innkeeper, praised for the cozy pajama-friendly atmosphere she created at her Church Street Bed & Breakfast in San Francisco and beloved for creating an equally casual environment for guests at her Black Bear Bed & Breakfast in Newry in recent years.

She was so determined to remember her guests, she took photographs of each and organized them in scrapbooks she stored on the second floor of the inn. One guest said Bullard was simply “amazing.”

Bullard, who was 65 years old, was owner of a New England-style inn, but the interior was anything but New England style. She had eclectic tastes, a blend of her life in San Francisco and her wide-ranging interests, and she shared her sense of whimsy with her guests.

The innkeeper put her Newry property on the market in February, listing the seven-bedroom farmhouse on the Sunday River Road for $639,000. She was, after operating the business for two winters, considering leaving Maine.

She was a strong woman, according to Apple Tree Realty owner Bonita Sessions, “a good businesswoman, just a very strong figure.”

Bullard moved to Newry in May 2004 after her daughter Selby’s husband was killed in a car crash, wanting a new start.

Before innkeeping, Bullard worked for a wholesale meat distributor, according to Bernie Vielwerth, who used to run an inn near Bullard’s in San Francisco.

Bullard and her daughter, Selby, another weekend slaying victim, were exceptionally close and in frequent contact. Sessions guesses that when Selby didn’t hear from her mother over the weekend, she asked her friend Cynthia Beatson to drive her out to the bed & breakfast to check on her.

Bullard’s three golden retrievers, who were her constant companions, were believed to be the dogs killed over the weekend. She was so devoted to the animals that she fed them a special homemade dog food, a time-consuming process.

– Judith Meyer and AP

that guests say she did enthusiastically because she believed it was better for the dogs than processed foods.