In the quiet town of Monson, Maine, the lives of a long-married couple came to a tragic end in the late autumn of 2005. Mary Sandberg, a 78-year-old female, was found deceased in her home on Steward Road on Sunday, November 27, 2005. The grim discovery was made by a neighbor who had arrived to help Mary and her 80-year-old husband, John, pack for an impending move to an assisted-living facility.
Investigators pieced together a heart-wrenching narrative of the events that likely transpired sometime between Saturday night and early Sunday morning. It is believed that John Sandberg used a rifle to fatally shoot his wife before turning the weapon on himself in an apparent murder-suicide. This act of domestic violence was one of nineteen homicides recorded in Maine that year, with more than half of those cases being domestic in nature.
The community was left to grapple with the sudden and violent loss of the elderly couple. John, a lifelong Monson resident, had spent his years as a self-employed farmer and woodsman. Mary was a communicant of Holy Family Catholic Church in the nearby town of Sangerville. The case was considered solved with the death of the primary suspect, her husband, leaving behind a legacy of sorrow and questions for their family and all who knew them.
