A portrait of a quiet country couple emerged from neighbours of Ellen and James Russell Hall, who were found dead in their spacious home in Barr Settlement, near East Gore last Friday.
RCMP completed autopsies last weekend and say the couple was murdered but won’t say how except that it wasn’t random.
Kerry Godin, of 1295 Barr Settlement Road, three doors away from the victim’s home, remembers the couple as friendly but quiet.
“Rustie would say ‘remember I’m only three doors away if you need anything’,” said Godin. “Now I feel bad because I’m only three doors away and I can’t help him.”
Neighbours say Rustie went to work every day for a glass contractor, but were unable to supply details.
Godin remembers Ellen fondly for bringing her Christmas tree saplings from the tree farm where she worked and for sharing pictures of her recently-born grandchildren.
Both victims were 53 and had a son and daughter, neighbours say. The son had been recently serving with the Canadian Armed Forces in Afghanistan.
Shawn Lacey, farm manager for Scothorn Farms, said Ellen worked for his company for about three years and had recently been laid off after the Christmas rush and wouldn’t have been back until April.
“She was a good employee, a very intelligent girl,” said Lacey.
Ellen was one of 15 to 20 people working under Lacey so he didn’t get to know her very well, but they got along. “She talked about her kids and her grandkids,” he said.
Lacey, just a year older than Rustie, remembers him well from their days at Hants East Rural High.
Though they didn’t see each other often, they were both motorbike riders and he’d see the couple at Scothorn Christmas parties. “At our Christmas parties he was always well behaved.”
“We all knew he was a member of the East Coast Riders (motorcycle club) but just because you ride a bike doesn’t mean you’re a bad guy.”
Other media reports say members of the East Coast Riders formed a new chapter of the New Brunswick-based Bacchus Motorcycle Club, which the RCMP describe as an organized crime group with about 50 members.
But neighbours, including a 13-year-old boy, remember him for charity fundraisers, kids’ fairs and fireworks, sponsored by the East Coast Riders.
“It’s not under good circumstances that they had a passing,” said a woman with Scothorn Farms, who asked not to be named.
