THE twin sisters who attempted to carry out a suicide pact at a US shooting range have been named in court documents as 29-year-olds Candice and Kristin Hermeler, from Victoria.

Kristin died of her injuries but Candice survived and had recovered enough by Thursday morning to speak to police near Denver, Colorado, confirming she and her sister had made a suicide pact.



She told them what happened but would not say why during the two-hour interview, the Denver Post reported.



"We asked that question several times, and each time she declined to answer," Captain Louie Perea of the local Sheriff's Department said. "Obviously we can't make her tell us that."



He said she was "devastated, frustrated, distraught, angry at times."



The sisters' parents are due to arrive in Colorado on Friday, when they will be asked to positively identify Kristin.



"They have similar appearance, they have head wounds," Captain Perea told local television.



"So you have to take all that into consideration and one thing we want to do is ... be 100 percent definite that we know the true identity of them before we release information on them."



"Arapahoe County Sheriff's Officers have now met with the surviving sister, who has confirmed that they had planned to commit suicide together, and did in fact shoot themselves," the sheriff's office said in a statement.



"Based on the physical evidence collected, the surviving sister's statements, and video surveillance footage from the shooting center the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office believes that this incident was indeed a suicide and attempted suicide," the sheriff's department said today.



News Limited understands Candice suffered a gunshot wound to her forehead.



She had brain surgery the day after the shooting and has only now been well enough to speak to police.



It is believed she was conscious and bloodied when they arrived at the popular Family Shooting Center, south of Denver on Monday, local time.



She and her sister had been happily firing .22 pistols at the range for up to 90 minutes before the shootings.



Their parents are making plans to fly to the US from Victoria.



The women had been in Denver about five weeks before the shooting.



They checked out of their hotel three days before the tragedy and took a taxi to the range.



One of the women had been due to leave the US the following day.



They were in the country on a cultural exchange visa, having arrived on September 7 and August 19.

The twins' American cousin wrote on The Denver Post's website her family is praying for Candice's recovery.



"I am not by any means an official spokesperson for the family, but from what I am told the twins' parents will be arriving sometime Saturday to try and help make sense of this awful tragedy," the cousin, who referred to herself as Jacky S, wrote.



"These twins are my cousins, and as a family we are all grieving the senseless death of the one whilst praying for the recovery of the other," the cousin wrote.



"I ask that you keep their parents in your thoughts and prayers as they try to come to grips with what has happened."



The cousin said she wished the twins had contacted her if they were plagued by a problem.



"Totally senseless, wish they could have figured out a different way to deal with whatever was plaguing them," she wrote.



"Wish they knew where I was, so near, I would have helped. RIP my young cousin."

Police would not release the twins' names until their identities were confirmed.

Kirstin died at the scene while Candice suffered her near-fatal head wound when their pistols fired inside stall 18 at the range.

Surveillance footage shows them falling backwards from the stall almost simultaneously but it does not capture the actual shootings.

Police believe the women were shot with the .22 calibre pistols they hired at the range.

Yesterday, police searched luggage belonging to the women but found no clues.

"There was no indication, from the owners of the ranch or the other shooters, that there was any hostility between them," Captain Perea said.

Originally published as Aussie suicide twins named