NASHUA — An overnight standoff on Hutchinson Street ended Sunday morning after a man apparently killed his longtime girlfriend and then took his own life, authorities said.
Nashua police received a call around 11 p.m. Saturday reporting a woman’s body on the Baldwin Street Bridge, the New Hampshire attorney general’s office said in a statement.
Shortly afterward, police were called to a residence at 1 Hutchinson St., where a man was believed to be alone inside with multiple firearms, refusing to emerge, authorities said.
Some neighbors were evacuated and others told to remain inside during the standoff.
Jeff Strelzin, an assistant attorney general, declined to release details on the cause of the woman’s death or to identify the victims prior to the completion of autopsies, which were scheduled for Monday.
Property records list Meg Halley as the owner of 1 Hutchinson St. Neighbors identified her as the female victim and said they knew the man as Allen.
Halley’s ex-husband, Donald Keaveney, 59, of Dover, N.H., said in a brief phone interview that he had not spoken to her in at least a decade. He said he and Halley have two children, a son who lives in Nashua and a daughter who lives in Maryland.
“They’re obviously very upset,” Keaveney said.
Relatives of Halley could not be reached to comment Sunday.
Strelzin said the couple had been out with friends Saturday evening before the incident. The friends returned to the Hutchinson Street house later Saturday night, asking about the woman.
“They were initially concerned based on the female not being there, the man’s appearance, and [t]he discovery of a body close by,” Strelzin wrote in an e-mail. “He later brought out a gun.”
After the gun was revealed, the friends called police.
A SWAT team that arrived on the scene tried to negotiate with the man, finally entering the house around 7:30 a.m. Sunday. The team found him inside, dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, the attorney general’s office said. No law enforcement officials fired any weapons during the incident, authorities said.
Investigators believe the man killed the woman on the bridge before killing himself at his Hutchinson Street home, about half a mile away.
The man and woman were not married but had been in a long-term relationship for more than 20 years, the attorney general’s office said. Both had adult children from previous relationships.
Bill Dwyer, 80, of Hughey Street said he learned of the deaths when he drove by the house, which was taped off and had police vehicles out front.
“This has always been a quiet neighborhood,” he said. “The only way to get in is over a wooden bridge — it’s like a little island away from the city.”
He described the couple as “wonderful and lovely.”
The man kept the property up, Dwyer said, and seemed proud of the house. “They seemed like a really happy couple.”
Mike Perez, 41, of Daytona Street was out with friends Saturday night and was stopped at the bridge when he tried to get home around 11:30 p.m. He said he was told to get a hotel for the night.
“It’s the only way to get in or out of the neighborhood,” he said. “I was basically kicked out of my own house for the night.”
He said he was shocked at the turn of events.
“It’s the greatest neighborhood, one of the best in Nashua,” he said, adding neighbors call it the “forgotten borough.”
A neighbor from across the street declined to give her name and described the couple as “good friends” and “caring, giving, beautiful people.”
Four broken windows and a torn blind could be seen at 1 Hutchinson St., where an autumnal wreath and Indian corn adorned the doorway.
There was blood on the rear driver’s side quarter panel of a gray Jeep Cherokee in the driveway. The back of the car bore a bumper sticker: “Guns don’t kill people. Drivers with cellphones do.”
