Killingworth police found former Wiltonian Lauren Beebe, 48, and her husband Billy Newman, 57, dead of gunshot wounds in their Route 148 home in the Middlesex County town of Killingworth on Wednesday, Nov. 25.
Connecticut state troopers were called to the residence at 8:25 a.m. that Wednesday after reports of a disturbance, according to a state police press release.
At the scene, troopers found the two unresponsive adults in the home and EMS pronounced the couple deceased. State Police Central District Major Crime Squad detectives responded and assumed the investigation.
Based the chief medical examiner’s post-mortem examinations, the couple’s deaths have been categorized as a murder-suicide, according to state police.
According to the chief medical examiner’s office, Newman’s manner of death was suicide and Beebe’s was homicide, with gunshot wounds to her head and torso.
The Hartford Courant reported that Beebe had filed for divorce from Newman earlier in November and “a check of the couple's court file [showed] no documented incidents of violence between Newman and Beebe.”
Lauren Beebe
Beebe, born Oct. 17, 1967, was the daughter of Bruce and Cindy Beebe. She was a 1985 Wilton High School graduate who achieved high honors in her final spring semester of high school.
She was honored by the PTSA for a drawing of hers that was included in Wilton High School's permanent collection and received a certificate of merit for being selected as art-student-of-the month during her senior year.
According to the Nov. 14, 1984 issue of The Wilton Bulletin — Lauren Beebe, WHS Artist of the Month — Beebe was a high school senior who specialized in drawing and pottery and liked to "become intensively involved" in her work.
A sculpture of Beebe’s earned her a gold key award, the highest honor award in a state art competition in 1985, according to the Feb. 13, 1985 issue of The Wilton Bulletin. Her sculpture was exhibited in the Glenbrook branch office of C.B.T., and she and four other Wilton students went on to compete in the National Scholastic Arts Competition.
Beebe went on to study fine arts at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, R.I., graduating in June 1989 with a bachelor's degree in fine arts.
She then attended Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., where she studied veterinary technology and was elected treasurer of a university chapter of a veterinary technicians association in 1991.
Beebe pursued a degree in veterinary medicine at Louisiana State University (LSU) in Baton Rouge, La., and received her doctor of veterinary medicine in 2003.
She returned to Connecticut and completed an internship in small animal medicine and surgery at Norwalk’s VCA Veterinary Emergency and Referral Center in 2004.
After working as an emergency veterinarian and relief veterinarian for about a year, Beebe returned to LSU in 2005 to join its veterinary faculty as a clinical instructor in companion animal anesthesia and pain management.
In June 2013, Beebe came back to Connecticut once again and “moved her Louisiana family to Killingworth,” according to the website of the Killingworth Animal Hospital, where Beebe then started working.
When she was not practicing veterinary medicine, according to the website, Beebe still pursued creative arts and equestrian sports in her spare time, “usually with the company of her two young children and her husband.”
Beebe and her family also had four dogs, a cat and a pet crawfish, according to the animal hospital website.
Trooper Kelly Grant, state police spokeswoman, told The Bulletin in an email on Friday, Dec. 4, that "the children were in the residence at the time of the incident."
"Upon arrival of the first trooper, they were placed in his cruiser, then turned over to family," said Grant. "The children were unharmed."