Elderly Man, Wife Die in Apparent Murder-Suicide : Killings: The couple, 80 and 77, are found shot. Depression over ailing health may have precipitated slayings, officials say.

An elderly man and his ailing wife were found Monday fatally shot in an apparent murder-suicide in the one-story stucco home the couple had shared for 20 years.

Irving G. Babcock, 80, left a note telling authorities how to locate relatives and how to handle the couple’s burial but did not give a reason for the killings that took place late Sunday or early Monday, authorities said.

Jessie M. Babcock, 77, was found in her bed with a single gunshot wound to the head about 11:40 a.m. Monday by police. A housekeeper alerted authorities that the couple did not answer their door and that several days of newspapers were sitting on the porch of their home in the 5500 block of Amherst Street.

Irving Babcock’s body was found lying next to the bed. It appeared that he had shot himself twice with his .38-caliber revolver after shooting his wife, said Ventura Detective Sgt. George Morris.

Coroner’s officials said the man was believed to be depressed over health problems the couple experienced. Jessie Babcock, who had a series of strokes in recent years, had suffered from back pain for much of her life after being injured in a car accident. And recently, Irving Babcock had been going to a doctor after his own complaints of back pain.

Shocked and surprised over Monday’s discoveries, friends described the couple, who had recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, as loving and devoted to each other. But with Jessie Babcock’s deteriorating health, her husband had become overwhelmed with household responsibilities and caring for his wife, friends said.

“He didn’t know how to do laundry, so I went over and showed him,” said Gerda Bailey, who described herself as a friend and neighbor of the Babcocks for 20 years. “It must have been rough on him. I’m so used to seeing them. It’s going to be odd. I’m going to miss those anniversary dinners we had.”

With their wedding anniversaries both falling on Oct. 24, the Babcocks and Baileys regularly celebrated the event together. But this year, Jessie Babcock was too ill to attend their annual anniversary dinner, sending over a lemon meringue pie instead to mark the event, Bailey said.

“They always seemed to do everything together,” said Chic Bailey, Gerda’s husband. “Maybe he thought she was in so much pain. She was bedridden after having some strokes. Everything fell on him completely after her stroke. I talked to him a week ago and he seemed in good spirits. They were wonderful neighbors.”

The Babcocks were a quiet couple with no children nor nearby relatives, friends said. They moved to Ventura from Massachusetts in 1975. Before he retired, Irving Babcock had been an accountant for the Ventura County Medical Center.

Members of First Baptist Church of Ventura, the Babcocks had been increasingly homebound over the past six years.

“Irving was a piano player and would come over and get the key every so often and play our piano here,” said the Rev. Don Loomer, pastor of First Baptist. “It was very unexpected. They were very, very much home people and did not get out and socialize much. They were very warm and gracious.”

Stella Schaefer, a First Baptist member who was a friend of the Babcocks, talked with the couple weekly and occasionally brought them dinners. Christmas carolers from the church always went to their home during the holidays, she said.

“They so enjoyed the carolers from church,” Schaefer said. “Jessie even got out of bed to see them, she so enjoyed them. They were a friendly, loving couple. This is just a shock. She has been in ill health and he had been going to the doctor recently, so maybe he thought that if something happened to him, who would take care of her?”

The couple is survived by Jessie Babcock’s siblings in Oregon and Massachusetts.