In the quiet town of New Sharon, Maine, the life of 42-year-old Jessica Dapolito, a White female, came to a tragic end on January 25, 2021. On that Monday morning, law enforcement officers, responding to a request for a welfare check at her Hovey Road home, made a grim discovery. Inside, they found the bodies of both Jessica and her longtime partner, 55-year-old Robert Dapolito.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner later confirmed the devastating reality of the situation: Jessica
Dapolito had been shot and killed by Robert, who then turned the gun on himself in a domestic violence homicide-suicide. This violent act left their two children, Patrick and Casey, to grapple with the sudden loss of both parents. Though Jessica had taken Robert's last name, the couple, who had been together for about 23 years, were not legally married. Both worked for a social service agency.
Tragically, this was not the first time such a horrific event had touched their families. Just three years prior, in January 2018, Jessica's own parents, Thomas and Michelle Masse, died in a similar murder-suicide where her father shot her mother before taking his own life. Furthermore, in 2010, Robert's brother, Patrick Dapolito, murdered his wife, Kelly Winslow, and was subsequently convicted and sentenced to 55 years in prison.
As Robert Dapolito was the sole suspect and took his own life, no arrests were made in connection with Jessica's death. The investigation concluded that he was responsible for the murder. The community was left to mourn the loss of a woman described by her aunt as "incredibly kind" with "a heart of gold," whose life was cut short in a final, terrible act of violence.
