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A retired physician is suspected of fatally shooting his paralyzed and terminally ill wife before turning the gun on himself Wednesday in a shooting that one of the couple’s neighbors described as an “act of love” to relieve his wife’s suffering.

A home health care worker discovered the bodies of Marilyn A. Rudzinski, 68, and her husband, Dennis J. Rudzinski, 73, about 10:30 a.m. after she arrived at the home in the 2700 block of Newquay Lane in Bexley subdivision, said Chesterfield police Capt. Michael Louth.

Their deaths are being investigated as a murder-suicide, Louth said.

“He was just beside himself and didn’t know what to do,” said longtime friend Sally Ward, who lives a couple of blocks away. “We think that he was overwhelmed.”

“This was an act of love,” Ward added. “They were just a couple that were never apart. They were always together. You always used to see them, and they were never alone. They were always grocery shopping on Sundays together.”

Marilyn Rudzinski had stage IV melanoma cancer, which had spread down her spine, paralyzing her, Ward said.