(CNN) After an elderly couple in Washington state was found dead in an apparent murder-suicide, investigators said they found notes suggesting the pair was struggling to pay medical bills.

Brian Jones called 911 on Wednesday morning and told the dispatcher he was going to shoot himself, according to the Whatcom County Sheriff's Office. The 77-year-old said he had prepared a note for the sheriff containing information and instructions and told the operator, "We will be in the front bedroom."

Deputies arrived about 15 minutes later and a crisis negotiator tried to contact Jones for about an hour, the sheriff's office said, before deputies sent in a robot-mounted camera. Jones was found dead lying next to his wife, Patricia Whitney-Jones, 76.

Authorities said they believe Jones shot his wife, and then himself.

Several notes left behind cited Whitney-Jones' "severe ongoing medical problems" and expressed concerns that the couple "did not have sufficient resources to pay for medical care," investigators said.

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