ELYRIA - A battered women’s advocate was found shot to death Saturday along with her husband in what authorities believe was a murder-suicide at Pikewood Manor mobile home park near Midway Mall.
The bodies of 65-year-old Margaret McCoy and her husband, 63-year-old Virgil “Gene” McCoy were found by a relative who called police shortly after noon.
When officers arrived, they found Margaret McCoy on the floor and Virgil McCoy in a chair with a .38-caliber revolver nearby, according to police Lt. Andy Eichenlaub. Both were shot in the head.
The revolver contained a single discharged casing, Eichenlaub said. A second discharged casing was found in a trash can in the house, indicating the weapon was reloaded and fired a second time, Eichenlaub said. The revolver and three other firearms were taken as evidence.
The front door of the mobile home at 187 Gull Drive was unlocked when police arrived, but there was no evidence of a scuffle, robbery or forced entry, Eichenlaub said. There was no note and family members had last spoken with the couple at about 6 p.m. Friday, he said.
The killings are being investigated as a probable murder-suicide, according to Dr. Stephen Evans of the Lorain County Coroner’s Office.
Margaret McCoy worked at the Genesis House shelter for battered women, where she held the hands of domestic violence victims in Oberlin Municipal Court.
The killing shocked Oberlin Municipal Judge Thomas Januzzi and Wellington Prosecutor Donald Zaleski, who had worked alongside Margaret McCoy in court.
“It is horrible and shocking,” Januzzi said of the deaths. “I’m 53 years old, and I don’t think I ever have personally known a murder victim.”
Januzzi called Margaret McCoy “very helpful and polite and respectful to everyone.”
“She was always available to the people who were the alleged victims of crime - especially domestic violence,” Januzzi said.
Zaleski called McCoy “a great person who did a great job.”
“She was a victim of domestic violence herself in the past,” said Zaleski. “She never really talked about it.”
Zaleski said he met Virgil McCoy once, but nothing about the meeting stands out in his memory.
Neighbors in the mobile home park were shocked, saying the couple had been married for a dozen years or so and seemed happy.
They said they last saw Virgil McCoy walking the couple’s little dog named Buttons between 3 and 4 p.m. Friday.
Hudak said Virgil McCoy, who was diabetic, had recently lost a significant amount of weight and seemed very chipper with the coming of spring.
“He was in a good mood - like he had won the lottery,” said Linda Hudak. “He hugged me and said, ‘I can’t wait until we go fishing.’ ”
The pair fished in Pikewood Manor’s pond stocked with catfish, bluegills and bass, which was a few feet from the McCoy home.
“If you knew him and talked to him you’d say it wasn’t true, but they say it’s a fine line between sanity and insanity,” Hudak said. “We all have hidden ghosts.”
Another neighbor, Joyce “Lynn” Martincak said she won’t believe that Virgil McCoy killed his wife until evidence is processed in the case.
She said McCoy, who was retired, would run out to get his wife’s bags and attache case so she didn’t have to carry them into the house when she got home.
“She had just given a speech (on her life’s work) and Gene said how proud he was of her,” Martincak said. “I don’t care what they say about murder-suicide, he loved her.”
Several neighbors offered condolences to two men they identified as Margaret McCoy’s two grown sons.
The family members who gathered at the lakeside home as police detectives and the coroner did their work declined to comment for this story.
Eichenlaub, the police spokesman, said it is believed that the couple died Friday.
It will take some time to examine physical evidence collected at the scene and analyze forensic evidence such as gunshot residue tests in an effort to determine if the deaths were a murder-suicide, Eichenlaub said.
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