Author: DeAnn Komanecky
EDEN - An Effingham County couple was found shot to death at their Holly Drive home Monday morning in what investigators say may have been a murder-suicide.
Sheriff's spokesman David Ehsanipoor said deputies responded to the home at 161 Holly Drive, off U.S. 80 in the southern portion of the county, about 10:40 a.m. on a report of gun shots.
When deputies arrived, they found the body of Irene Margie Wiggins, 61, in the home's backyard and that of her husband, Robbie Wiggins, 65, inside the home.
Ehsanipoor said each had died of a single gunshot wound.
Robbie Wiggins' body was found just inside the back door of the home. A .357-caliber revolver was found in the general vicinity of the body, Ehsanipoor said.
Family members gathered near the house Monday, answering questions for investigators.
"It's a senseless, heinous crime," Kimberly Norton, daughter of Margie Wiggins, said. "My mother was the greatest."
Longtime next-door neighbor Ronnie Waller said he was stunned by the shooting. Waller said he found the body of Margie Wiggins after returning from a trip to the post office.
"I could see her (laying in the yard)," Waller said. "I thought she'd had a stroke or something, so I jumped the fence to see."
Waller said the Wiggins were just like family and frequently joined his family on cookouts and camping trips.
"I'd just seen her at a funeral," he said. "This is so unexpected."
The Wiggins had been married about 30 years, family members said.
Ehsanipoor said while the preliminary investigation indicates a murder-suicide, the investigation is ongoing.
Both bodies were taken to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation crime lab in Savannah for autopsies.
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