CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. — The investigation into a Chesterfield County couple found dead in their home Tuesday has been ruled a murder-suicide by police — but family members say there's more to the story.
Police say 77-year-old Hank Roberts shot his 73-year-old wife, Madeline Roberts, before turning the gun on himself. A caregiver discovered their bodies with gunshot wounds after returning from a quick trip to the store Tuesday afternoon.
"They were madly and deeply in love with each other," said Roy Roberts, an ex-son-in-law, during a Zoom interview Thursday.
While Roy Roberts acknowledges the police ruling is technically accurate, he says there's far more to the story.
"He adored her, worshipped the ground she laid on," Roy Roberts said. "She was a multiple decades long VCU professor of social work."
The family says Madeline Roberts suffered a medical setback about six years ago.
"2019 or 2020, she was doing yoga and experienced an embolism in her spine and the surgery that kept her from dying paralyzed her from about here [the waist] down," Roy Roberts said.
Family members describe the couple as inseparable, often speaking of "going" together. After Hank Roberts expressed having heart issues the day before their deaths, the family believes the couple made their final decision together.
"That is how they'd want their legacy to go forward and they'd want people to realize the injustice of a teacher and a writer slowly dying from medical neglect, in pain, until they couldn't go on any further," said a family friend.
Family says financial strain and physical struggles played a big part in the Roberts' love story these past six years.
This is a developing story. Email the CBS 6 Newsroom if you have additional information to share.
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