Gladys, VA - Campbell County investigators are still at a home in Gladys where they say they found the bodies of two people.
Right now they are calling it a murder suicide.
So far all we know officially is that we are dealing with the death of a 71-year-old man and 73-year-old woman. We are told it was a married couple that shared a home at 1710 Tabor Road in Gladys.
Several neighbors have stopped by the home to see what's going on. Some of them tell us had recently separated and have been trying to sell their home so she could get her own place. They say she was a well known hairdresser working in Bedford.
Investigators are withholding their names until they can contact family.
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Campbell authorities investigating apparent murder-suicide
Homer “Ted” Simmons, 71, and his wife, Shirley Simmons, 73, died of apparent gunshot wounds at their home on Tabor Road, said Capt. L.T. Guthrie, with the Campbell County Sheriff’s Office.
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1710 Tabor Rd, Gladys, VA 24554, USA
By: DAVE THOMPSON
Published: September 09, 2011
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GLADYS --
A Campbell County couple were discovered dead at their home Friday, and police are investigating the incident as a murder/suicide.
Homer “Ted” Simmons, 71, and his wife, Shirley Simmons, 73, died of apparent gunshot wounds at their home on Tabor Road, said Capt. L.T. Guthrie, with the Campbell County Sheriff’s Office.
Guthrie said deputies were called to the house at about 11:30 a.m., after Shirley Simmons did not show up at her Bedford salon Friday morning. Simmons owned Shirley’s Beauty Salon, on East Main Street.
He said the investigation indicates Ted Simmons shot his wife and himself.
No one had made contact with the two since about 7 p.m. Thursday, and Guthrie said some evidence was found suggesting the shooting happened at about 9 p.m. Thursday.Nearby residents recalled the couple as good neighbors and kind people but said they had noticed problems developing between them.
Dawna Johnson said she and her husband had gotten to know their neighbors well since about 2006, when the Simmons’ moved in.
She said her husband would help Ted Simmons mow the grass, and gave him keys to their own garage for when he would need gas for the mowers.
“When Shirley was sick, she had some eye surgery, so we’d take things over,” she said.
Johnson said Shirley Simmons had told her that her husband was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, and said his personality recently had been changing.
“I saw a lot of difference in him, just out in the yard, forgetting and that sort of thing,” Johnson said.
Guthrie confirmed family members had told him of Ted Simmons' developing mental health issues.
The Simmons’ had had their home up for sale for over a year, and neighbors said they were planning on moving back to Bedford.
“Things were, we thought, better, from the outside looking in,” said Johnson.
“There wasn’t anything questionable here in the last, probably, three months.”
E.B. Thurman, a longtime resident of the area, said he’d know the couple since they moved in, and that they were having problems.
But he never had any indication anything like Friday’s incident would happen.
“Everybody thought the world of him,” he said, calling Ted Simmons a “likable guy.”
“He didn’t talk like no bad fellow,” Thurman said.
Johnson said the incident didn’t affect the sense of safety in the community, but said it came as a tragic shock.
“You know it happens somewhere else, but you never really think of the next-door neighbor and somebody you know,” she said.
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