NORRIDGEWOCK — The deaths Saturday morning of a married couple who lived on Skowhegan Road appear to be a case of domestic-violence murder suicide, according to state police.

The dead are William Hale, 62, and his wife, Marie Lancaster-Hale, 58, according to a news release from Steve McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety. Their bodies and that of their dog were found in their laundry room. All three appear to have died from gunshot wounds, McCausland said.

Mental Health Crisis Hotline If you or someone you know is at risk for suicide or in crisis, please call the statewide crisis hotline at 1-888-568-1112. For more information on suicide prevention support and education offered through The Maine Suicide Prevention Program, visit NAMI Maine’s website (www.namimaine.org) or call at 1-800-464-5767.

Hale called the Somerset County Sheriff’s Office at 7:17 a.m. and said there would be two bodies at his house on Skowhegan Road, also known as U.S. Route 2, when deputies arrived, according to McCausland. Hale also said an elderly woman at the home would need care.

The couple were found dead in their home shortly afterward.

Hale’s mother, Faye Hale, who lived at the house, was found sitting unharmed in a vehicle in the driveway. McCausland said William Hale apparently helped his mother get into the vehicle and then returned to the house, where he shot himself. She was taken to a hospital for medical evaluation.

A handgun and a shotgun were recovered from inside the home and the bodies were taken to the chief medical examiner’s office in Augusta for examination, according to McCausland.

Neighbors expressed shock and sadness at the deaths.

Harrison York, who lives diagonally across the road from the Hale home, said William Hale was a good friend whom he had known 25 years. Hale retired a year or two ago from Madison Paper and was a skilled carpenter and millwright who helped York work on renovating his house, York said. They had put in new wooden walls, a staircase and a room above the stairs and installed a 3-inch slab of pine on an old sewing machine in that room, according to York’s girlfriend, Barbara Jean Hiscock.

“He was a very good neighbor, a good friend,” York said while sitting on his porch Saturday afternoon.

He said he did not know Marie Hale that well, but he thought she worked as a driver for the Kennebec Valley Community Action Program.

York said he knew that William Hale had a lot on his mind. Hale’s black Labrador retriever, which he thought the world of, was old and was not going to live much longer; his mother was not well; and his father died about a month ago, according to York. Beyond that, Hale told York that his wife, Marie, did not like his mother and the fact that she lived with them, York said.

“I could see that he was upset,” York said. “It hasn’t been good. He was going to have to have his dog laid away. (The dog) was 14 or 15. He got to the point where he couldn’t even walk.”

William Hale a while ago had asked Hiscock, who lives with York, to spend some time with Hale’s mother, and she and Hiscock hit it off right away, as they discovered they both are from Rumford, Hiscock said.

Hiscock said she and York visited the now dead couple on Friday morning, taking over a walker and a bed tray for Faye Hale, as well as applesauce to put her pills in to make it easier for her to swallow them.

Hiscock recalled William Hale hugged her tightly when they left. She said that in retrospect, she should have realized something was wrong.

But another neighbor, Becky Eldridge, said no one could have predicted what was to happen — that no one really knows what goes on behind closed doors.

Eldridge described both William Hale and Lancaster-Hale as nice people. Lancaster-Hale performed Eldridge and her husband’s wedding ceremony, she said.

“They had everything going for them. I’m just blown away,” Eldridge said. “He was such a nice man — incredibly talented. He could do anything, carpentry, he was a machinist, he restored cars.”

Hiscock led a tour of the York house where Harrison and William Hale did all the woodworking renovations. She said Hale confided some things to her and York on Friday morning, but she did not want to disclose what he said.

“It was real personal,” she said.

The red-and-white Hale house stood silent Saturday afternoon on busy Skowhegan Road, where the quiet was broken only by an occasional car or truck that whizzed by. An American flag flew at the top of a long flagpole in the yard near a wishing well and a thick tree branch molded into the shape of a large heart, with a metal sundial placed on top. A lamp hung from a black chain welded to look like a lamp post.

A tan van and an old truck with a red cab were parked behind the house, where the land stretches down to the Kennebec River. The Yorks and Eldridge said William Hale landscaped a beautiful walking tour down to the river that resembled a fairy land.

The house is about 3 miles from downtown Norridgewock. York said William Hale had lived there more than 25 years and had no children, but his wife had a child from another marriage. York, who has lived in his house about 50 years, said William Hale was a man who could do anything and was the type of person who seemed to need to be constantly working on something.

“I’m going to miss him,” he said.

Amy Calder — 861-9247

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Twitter: @AmyCalder17

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