GA1106ELECTION

Joan Bramhall, then-Morris County Clerk, fields calls from voters at her office in 2012. Sources with knowledge of the investigation say Bramhall was one of two people found dead at her Denville home Thursday.

(Jerry McCrea/ The Star-Ledger)

UPDATE, Friday: Authorities confirm Joan Bramhall was shot to death and her husband killed himself.

DENVILLE — Former Morris County clerk and longtime fixture of local Republican politics Joan Bramhall is one of the two people found dead in a Denville home Thursday, according to two people with knowledge of the investigation.

The sources also confirmed the deaths were being investigated as an apparent murder-suicide.

The Morris County Prosecutor's Office and Denville Police said in a news release Thursday two people had been found dead in an Arden Road home that morning. It said one was male and the other female, but did yet not disclose their identifies or the circumstances of their deaths.

The road was blocked with police tape Thursday, and law enforcement activity was centered around 9 Arden Road, listed in tax records as belonging to Bramhall and her husband, John. NJ.com has not confirmed whether other people lived in the home as well.

Members of the Denville Police Department were dispatched to the residence on a report of a person found dead in the single-family home, the announcement said. The officers who responded found another person in the residence as well, it said.

There was no indication of any threat to the community, according to the announcement. It also said authorities did not anticipate releasing further information Thursday.

Bramhall had been a longtime member of the Morris County Republican Committee, serving as its chairwoman from 1988 through 1994. She also served as a freeholder from 1993 through 1998, part of that time alongside now-Gov. Chris Christie.

She became Morris County clerk in 1999, and continued in that post until last year, when she declined to run again for the post. She had also previously been an aide to former U.S. Rep. Dean Gallo.

Bramhall told the Star-Ledger last year she was looking forward to having free time, after raising her three children and her grandchildren. She said at the time she was looking forward to a cruise to Alaska with her husband, John.

“That's what I would really love to do,” she said.

"People ask me, 'What are you going to do after you retire?'" Bramhall told the paper. "I say I can sleep a little later. I won't have to get up at 6 o'clock."

Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll, serving the 25th legislative district, said Bramhall was hugely helpful to young Republicans when he got involved in politics in the late 1970s.

"She was a great lady, everybody's friend. She never had an ill word about anybody," Carroll said.

He recalled the countless pictures Bramhall kept of herself with other public and political figures, including the governor — "she knew everybody," he said.

"At the end of the day, if you could stay serving the people in the state of New Jersey for basically 50 years, even somewhere as relatively civil as Morris County, and never piss anyone off, that says a lot about your personality," Carroll said. "I've probably known her for 35 years, and that makes me a rookie in Morris County."

Several other Morris County public officials and politicians reached Thursday declined comment, saying they would rather express their thoughts about Bramhall after her death has been publicly confirmed by law enforcement authorities.

Star-Ledger reporter Mark Di Ionno and NJ Advance Media reporter Kim Redmond contributed to this story.

Louis C. Hochman may be reached at lhochman@nj.com. Follow him on Twitter @LouisCHochman. Find NJ.com on Facebook.