FARMINGTON — Friends and neighbors came together Sunday at Meetinghouse Park on Main Street in Farmington to honor the memory of Joy Cumming and Jean Robinson by tidying the park that the two women enjoyed.

The dark shadow over such a bright April day for cleanup volunteers was that the December 2023 murders of Cumming, 53, and her mother, Robinson, 76, remain under investigation by Farmington and state police.

Cumming owned and ran Pawsitive Dog Kennel on Red Schoolhouse Road, where she lived with her mother. Many of their friendships revolved around a love of dogs.

Pam Poisson organized the noon meetup. Poisson helped Cumming two years ago to clear the park of leaves, sticks, trash and dog messes. Hoping for a dozen volunteers, Poisson was happy to see at least 14 join the cleanup by 12:15 p.m.

“It seemed like the time to do this,” Poisson said. “Two years ago, there were eight of us who did the park. I figured this was a good thing to do because (Joy) had been down here helping clean it up. She cared.”

Anna Ellrich was Robinson’s neighbor before Robinson moved into her daughter’s Red Schoolhouse Road home.

“Joy was a very giving person,” Ellrich said. “In the wintertime, she’d see my driveway was plowed in and she’d say, ‘I’ll take care of that.’ Jean was very quiet, but she was always outside working on her flowers. Lots of times I’d be out with my dog and we’d just talk and throw the ball to the dogs. Our dog, Bella, loved her, and every time she’d see Joy, she’d go nuts.”

“It left a hole in our hearts, that’s for sure,” Lisa Ellrich, Anna’s daughter, said.

Rose Cyr said she had a yearslong friendship with Robinson, and both were part of a dog-walking group that has met since 2008. Robinson was a big part of the group, which originated in the Granite Heights community, near Mount Blue Middle School, before spreading all over town.

“We walked every day for years and years with Jean,” Cyr said. “We’d go sometimes to Flint Woods or Clifford Woods. We still do it, a bunch of us. Jean was a big part of that. She was like the dog whisperer, so calm and good with everyone’s dogs and with training people. She was really, really awesome.”

Many of the attendees said they spend a lot of their time hoping for the break they need in the investigation that gives them some peace of mind.

“I know there will be no justice for Joy and Jean, but I’m looking for closure,” Lisa Nagle said.

Robinson’s longtime friend Mary Ayotte said her friend was “the most brilliant and unassuming force of nature there was.”

Ayotte, who said she exchanged text messages with Cumming a couple days before the killings, said it has been difficult to see little to no information come out on the homicide investigation.

“They were brilliant women,” Ayotte said. “We need to not just say these women were disposable. We need to question things. We don’t need to know how they were murdered, but just some closure. We just need closure, that’s all.”

Poisson said nobody has details or knows of any plans for a funeral or service for the two women, and that has been a focal point of the need for some closure.

“Police are aware people are nervous,” Poisson said. “You know, two people get killed in your little community and it makes you nervous, but they’re not going to put anything out until they have some answers.”

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