A man found shot dead alongside his partner was a retired police inspector of 30 years’ service.
The couple named by neighbours as Bill Dowling and his partner, known as Vicky were found dead at a property in Devizes, Wiltshire, on Saturday morning after neighbours alerted police having heard gunshots.
Police said they are not looking for anyone else in connection with the incident.
Neighbours described their shock, with one recalling how Mr Dowling had an interest in shooting pheasants.
The neighbour, who asked not to be named, said he believed Mr Dowling had a firearms licence.
He said: “I have known him for more than a decade and he was into shooting. I’d seen him load what looked like a big gun case into his car a few times. I think he went pheasant shooting.
“It was a big gun. It looked like it could’ve been a shotgun or something. He had long had an interest in shooting but over the last couple of months I saw him in his shooting gear a lot more.”
The neighbour added: “It just doesn’t make sense. They were a lovely couple, and he had recently spent a lot of money doing up the house.”
Detective Chief Inspector Ian Saunders said the bodies were discovered inside the porch on the Moonrakers estate.
He said: “The investigation has so far identified that yesterday morning some neighbours overheard a number of gunshots from the address. The investigation continues to try and establish what led to this tragic incident.”
He added that formal identification would happen later today.
“We understand him to be a retired police officer,” he said. “He retired some five years ago from Wiltshire Police Service.
“The female was not the wife of the retired officer. She is his partner. We have recovered a weapon from the scene. My working assumption is that weapons were discharged and the victims had sustained some form of gunshot wounds.”
One woman who lived near Mr Dowling said she thought she heard “a loud bang” at around 8.40am, adding: “I didn’t really think too much of it, so I went out to the shops.”
“It was only a few hours later when I had a call from my son to come home that I put two and two together and realised what had happened.”
She said Mr Dowling lived alone at the two-storey property.