AUGUSTA — The state medical examiner has confirmed that Clyde and Kim Shue, a married couple who lived in Manchester, died over the weekend when the husband shot his wife in the head once, then did the same to himself.
An administrator for the examiner’s office, Mark Belserene, declined to release other information on Wednesday about the shootings or the health of both people.
An autopsy determined that Kim Shue, who was 62, died due to homicide after being shot in her head, according to Belserene. The autopsy also found that Clyde Shue, who was 82, committed suicide by shooting himself in the head.
The announcement on Wednesday essentially confirms details that Maine State Police have released since the shootings. On Saturday morning, police responded to the Shues’ home at 543 Prescott Road after Clyde Shue reportedly called authorities to say that he had killed his wife of 22 years.
When a state police tactical team entered the home that afternoon, officers found Kim Shue’s body in her bed and Clyde Shue’s body by the doorway, with a handgun at his side, police said.
Police suspect that Clyde Shue shot himself shortly after making the phone call in which he reported killing his wife, a spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety said this week.
The spokesman gave no additional information about the investigation on Wednesday.
Medical examiners always look at the overall health of the dead, Belserene said, but on Wednesday he declined to provide additional details about the Shues.
The shootings have shocked relatives on both sides of the family, who have described Clyde, a retired corrections worker, and Kim, a registered nurse, as being devoted to each other and showing no outward signs of strife.
The Shues were not well-known in their neighborhood, but one area man who knew Clyde, Thomas Adinolfi, also said he had trouble picturing the Manchester man doing what he’s accused of.
“He was such a nice guy,” said Adinolfi, who owns an engine repair business in Belgrade where Shue was a customer and considered him a friend. “He really was. He was a sweet guy. He was very timid. We even joked about how he could have been a prison guard for all those years, because he didn’t have that temperament. … I just want people to know this was totally out of character for him in every way. He was a good man, a family man, a soft and gentle soul. Something just went tragically wrong.”
Adinolfi saw Clyde Shue just last week, he said, at which point “he seemed himself in every way … I was shocked to say the least. I’ve felt sick and saddened dearly for the last three days.”
When Adinolfi heard about that section of Prescott Road being closed on Saturday, he even made a call to check on Shue, not knowing he may have been dead by that point, he said.
Now, several people close to the Manchester couple wonder whether either of them were sick.
Clyde Shue might have been suffering from dementia and depression, said Staci Fowler of Gardiner, a great niece on his side of the family, but she didn’t know whether he or his wife had any terminal illness or agreement to end their lives.
“Everyone’s saying, ‘Was there some sort of pact? Was one of them ill?’” Fowler said on Monday. “There was no illness that I was aware of.”
In an email to the Kennebec Journal, Kim Shue’s sister, Cindy Grimaldi, made several of the same points.
“They were charismatic, smart, caring people with incredible senses of humor,” Grimaldi said. “I found nothing in the last three months to indicate that they were having (either) marital problems (or) health issues.”
Kim Shue did have knee replacement surgery about two months ago, Grimaldi said, but she seemed to be “doing very, very well” in her recovery.
“I do pray that if there was any terminal sickness between them, that they had a pact to ‘go’ together,” Grimaldi said. “… She had every right to agree to do this out of their love for each other, and I pray this is the outcome of police findings.”
Neither of the Shues were from Maine originally. Kim Shue was from Nutley, New Jersey, and had two children, but not with Clyde Shue, Grimaldi said. Clyde Shue has lived in several parts of the country, according to Fowler, but she wasn’t sure where he was born.
The couple met in Florida while working in the same jail, according to Fowler. About 10 years ago, they moved to Manchester to be closer to the family of Clyde Shue’s sister.
Charles Eichacker — 621-5642
Twitter: @ceichacker
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