ORRINGTON, Maine — A community is mourning the loss of a couple in Orrington.
Russell and Lois Swanson, both 89 years old, were found dead in their home on Swetts Pond Road in Orrington on Wednesday morning.
The Maine State Police Major Crimes Unit and the evidence response team were on the scene investigating, but police said there is no threat to the public.
Peter Gesner, of Orrington, lives just next door to the Swansons. He said he's been friends with them since they moved to Orrington and built their home in the 1980s. Gesner said he was close with them, and that the Swansons were inseparable.
"Russ used to hunt my property, he and his son, and his wife Lois and I became very good friends," Gesner said.
Gesner said he's still trying to process that they're gone.
"They were the best neighbors I could've asked for," Gesner added.
Gesner said they would often go to St. Teresa's Catholic Church in Brewer together. When the Swansons couldn't make it to church anymore, he said a priest would come to visit them at their home weekly.
"Living on a small street like this out in the country, you know we all pretty much look after one another, stop, say hello," Gesner said.
Carrol Harlow lives down the road from the Swanson home. He said they were good friends and he would spend time with them often ever since they moved to the neighborhood decades ago.
"Just a great relationship ... And they had it with everybody that's in the neighborhood really ... Especially for me, cause we did so much together, me and Russ, you know," Harlow said.
Harlow said he spent a lot of his time with Russell.
"[I'd] go up there and play cribbage a lot, Russ and I lived on the lake down there catching fish ... And we'd go smelting then hunting and everything," Harlow said.
The tight-knit community of Orrington is now left coping with the loss of people who were deeply loved by those who knew them.
"I'm gonna miss him," Harlow said.
"They were just a wonderful couple, a beautiful pair ... May they rest in peace," Gesner said.