Welcome to HickoryRecord.com. Skip directly to: our Keyword Search, Section Navigation, Content.

HickoryRecord.com - Hickory Daily Record

HomeNewsEntertainmentSportsLifestylesOpinionCommunityWeather Online Tools Jobs | Real Estate | Shopping | Classified

Couple found dead

Authorities believe husband shot wife, self

Robert C. Reed

Catawba County Chief Deputy Coy Reid and other investigators prepare to enter the scene of a double shooting Monday.

By Sarah Newell Williamson | Hickory Daily Record

Published: January 6, 2009

MAIDEN - Roosters could be heard crowing as Catawba County sheriff's investigators walked up to the powder blue house with white trim at the end of the cul-de-sac on Vickery Drive.

The rest of the house was quiet, belying the violence that took place in the house hours earlier.

Pamela and Michael Page were found dead in their home Monday afternoon. Chief Deputy Coy Reid said the sheriff's office was sent to the house by Michael's boss at Water Systems Inc.

"His bossman called and said he hadn't been at work and asked if we could do a welfare check," Reid said. "We came out here and saw their dogs barking and a candle burning."

Inside the house, investigators found the couple in a large room near the back of the house. Reid said there were objects knocked over in the room, and Pamela and Michael Page had one shotgun wound each to the face. Michael had a shotgun underneath him.

"Judging by interviews with neighbors, they haven't been getting along too good," Reid said. "She had a contact wound to the face."

Reid said Michael's boss also reported the couple had been arguing.

The couple is in their 50s. Reid said the sheriff's department has not been called out to the home for any domestic-related calls.

Gary Gettys, a neighbor who lives in the house behind the Pages, said he's been friends with them for more than 15 years. Gettys said although the couple fought occasionally, it was "no more than any normal, married couple."

He said Pamela was terminally ill with cancer, and she told him she only had a few years to live.

"They were good people," Gettys said. "I'm shocked that both are dead."