New Hampshire AG Gordon MacDonald confirms Diane McLaughlin, Donald McLaughlin deaths were a murder suicide

New Hampshire Attorney General Gordon MacDonald announced Friday that a Hooksett couple, Diane and Donald McLaughlin, died in a murder suicide.

Following an autopsy, it’s been confirmed that Donald McLaughlin, 58, shot and killed his wife, Diane McLaughlin, 68, before turning the gun on himself.

MacDonald said in the statement: “It appears that Mr. McLaughlin shot and killed his wife and then killed himself.”

The couple was discovered in their home at 39 Post Road shortly before 2:45 p.m.

“Nobody’s given us any sort of indication that this was something that they foresaw as a possibility,” said Senior Assistant Attorney General Benjamin Agati.

Now the official cause of death for Diane McLaughlin has been ruled a homicide and Donald’s a suicide.

Police found a written will in the room where the couple was found, officials said.

“It didn’t look like it was something that was hastily put together at the last minute,” Agati said. “But as to which individual pulled that will out or placed that there for people to find, we don’t know. We don’t know if we’re ever going to know the answer on that question.”

The investigation will continue while final toxicology testing is being done, but authorities do not expect to find any new information.

photo/ Gerd Altmann via pixabay