Friends of a 61-year-old man believed to have been slain in his backyard near Mill Valley by a man who then took his own life were struggling Friday to make sense of the still-unexplained violence.

Theodore Rodden, 61, found shot to death Wednesday evening in Marin County's unincorporated Strawberry area, was a sound technician adored by co-workers and musicians across the nation, friends said.

Rodden, known to friends as Ted, and his wife, Kaye Rodden, performed indie-folk music together as the Sweet Leaf Duo.

"He was beloved by everybody, every employee, every musician," said Bob Brown, the 68-year-old owner of Rancho Nicasio, a restaurant and music venue in rural Nicasio where Rodden was the sound technician and production manager for the past 16 years.

"He didn't have a bad bone in his body. He was short in stature but big in heart," Brown said. "It is just a terrible tragedy."

Rodden took care of everything at Rancho Nicasio, Brown said.

"I have 30 employees here," he said. "A lot of them are going to be devastated."

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Brown's wife, Angela Strehli, a 68-year-old singer with the Blues Broads, said Rodden was cherished by musicians.

"Whether you're touring the Bay Area, the country or the world, your artistic experience absolutely depends on sounding good," she said. "So to have a sound engineer who is excellent at his job and cooperative with the band's needs is a must, but Ted was more than that. He was the cheerful, absolutely sweet person who was really a part of the attraction of Rancho Nicasio to all of the great bands we present here."

A relative found Rodden's body in the backyard of his home at 156 Carlotta Circle about 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. Then the next morning, a deputy discovered a side gate open at an adjacent home at 152 Carlotta Circle. In the backyard was Andreas Kreiden, 41, dead from a gunshot wound with a rifle close by.

Authorities suspect a murder-suicide, but did not release further information Friday about the investigation. Efforts to reach Kreiden's family have been unsuccessful.

Exactly when Rodden was killed is not clear. James Elias, 21, who was doing landscaping at a nearby house Wednesday, said he heard a loud bang at around 1 p.m. that sounded like a gunshot. But he figured it was something falling off a nearby roof.

Brown said he couldn't imagine Rodden being in a dispute with anybody.

"It would be impossible not to like Ted," he said.