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Dead pensioners adored each other: family

A married Melbourne couple whose bodies were found in their home were always together, those who knew them say.

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Source: AAP


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A disabled pensioner couple whose bodies were found in their Melbourne house adored each other, family say.

Police discovered the bodies of Katrina, 50, and her husband Christopher, 47, inside their home after doing a welfare check on Sunday night.

They are treating the deaths as suspicious and have not ruled out murder-suicide.

A statement released by family, who wanted the couple's surnames kept private, said they are deeply saddened by the news.

"Christopher and Katrina were a happily married couple who cared very deeply for each other," they said.

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Neighbour Dorothy Savage said the couple lived at the Heidelberg West house about 10 years and she spoke to them every now and then.

"They were nice people, they kept to themselves all the time," Mrs Savage told Fairfax Radio.

"They only seemed to go out together.

"They were on a disability pension."

Mrs Savage said she believed the couple, who have a young daughter, were "doing all right" despite Katrina being unwell some years ago.

"They reckon she was a very brilliant woman until she had the nervous breakdown.

"They met in a place where they were both living and they were both on the pension."

Mrs Savage said she heard nothing unusual and last saw Christopher a week ago.

She now believes the couple may have been dead up to a week given last week's difficult heatwave conditions.

"I saw him about a week ago come out his front door and onto the nature strip. Then I haven't seen him since," she said.

"It has shaken me up."

Police were called to the property after concerned relatives raised the alarm, just after 7pm (AEDT) on Sunday.

Investigators are awaiting post-mortem results to determine their cause of death.

Homicide squad Detective Sergeant Brent Fisher says the couple kept to themselves.

"They pretty much stayed within their own confines of their own relationship," he told Fairfax Radio.

A woman who knew the couple said they were always together.

"They were always together, never apart. Now they've gone together," she told the Nine Network.


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