DIXFIELD – An East Dixfield man shot his longtime companion and himself to death in a car on a dirt road late Wednesday night, three weeks after she moved out of their house about a mile away.

The bodies of Nancy Smith, 47, of Rumford and her companion of 26 years, Melvin Rocky Bishop, 57, were found just after midnight on Valley Road in the village of East Dixfield, said Steve McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety. Dixfield reserve officer Thomas Gould was on routine patrol when he found the car parked, running and with its lights on, McCausland said. Police believe the deaths occurred less than an hour before the bodies were found, he added.

Smith’s body was in the driver’s seat, but partially out of the vehicle with the driver’s door partially open, McCausland said.

Bishop’s body was found in the vehicle, he said.

Both died of a single gunshot wound to the head, McCausland said. The gun was found inside the car.

The Maine State Medical Examiner’s Office ruled the deaths a murder-suicide, he said. “It’s obviously a case of domestic violence,” McCausland said.

Smith had moved out of the couple’s home on Rover Road in East Dixfield three weeks ago and was in the process of ending her longtime relationship with Bishop, McCausland said. She had moved to an apartment in Rumford, he said.

Police found documentation, McCausland said, that Smith was trying to assist Bishop, who was unemployed, with running the household budget on his own. They were apparently meeting once a week, he said.

On Wednesday night the couple planned to go for a swim in the pool at the University of Maine at Farmington, then out for a couple of drinks, but it is unknown if they had done so, McCausland said.

There was no history of domestic violence, and police had not been called to the home in the past, he said.

“Indications we have are that she was trying to end the relationship in amicable fashion and he obviously had different ideas,” McCausland said.

Smith worked in the billing department at Swift River Medical Center in Rumford. The center was closed Thursday afternoon, according to a telephone answering message there.

The couple raised a son, who is about 30, and lives in the area, McCausland said.

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