LOWELL | An 84-year-old man despondent over finances and his spouse's health issues shot his wife to death over the weekend and then killed himself, police say.
Neighbors described the couple as friendly and good neighbors.
Lowell Police Chief John Shelhart said the couple attended a birthday party Friday. On Sunday, Shelhart said, their daughter came to the home in the 300 block of Eastland Circle and saw the morning newspaper still outside. She entered the couple's home through a garage door pad and found her parents' bodies.
Neighbors said the wife had Alzheimer's disease. Shelhart said the couple had just depleted their 401(k) and had lost money in the stock market.
Next-door neighbor Paul Mayer said he and his wife have known the victims for four years.
"They have been really good neighbors," Mayer said. "We considered them close friends."
Mayer said he saw the husband four days ago when there was a problem with an irrigator between their yards.
Mayer said the husband asked if he could hear him hollering inside his home. Mayer said he couldn't.
The husband told Mayer he was frustrated because his wife would ask him a question and repeat it two minutes later.
Mayer said he talked to the couple's son-in-law who said the family wanted to put the wife in a nursing home but she said she didn't want to go.
Neighbor Edna Jane Miller said the husband was always helpful, even taking her trash out for her if the she was camping on the weekends. Miller said she and the husband would often talk by the mailbox.
Miller said she first found out about the deaths when she returned home Sunday and found her driveway blocked and the block filled with squad cars. Miller said the neighbors are still shook up over the tragedy.
Police said they would not release the names of the victims per the family's request.
The Lake County coroner's office is not releasing the names of the deceased pending further investigation.
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