Christmas Murder Mystery: Who Killed Eric Williams And Bonnie Royer? Maine Couple Found Shot Dead In SUV
Bonnie Royer, 26, and 35-year-old Eric Williams were found shot to death on Christmas morning, parked in a sport utility vehicle reportedly owned by Williams on a lonely, Maine road less than a mile from the home the couple shared in Augusta. Two days later, police remain puzzled over who murdered the couple and why.
Royer was the mom of a young daughter, McKenzie, according to a GoFundme page set up to raise expenses for the mother’s funeral. Little else has been publicly revealed about her or Williams, whose Facebook page states that he was a “former manager” at Kellermeyer Building Services, an Ohio-based company with branches nationwide that provide janitorial services, mainly for department stores and other large retail businesses.
Williams held that job from 2010 until sometime this year, according to his Facebook postings, which also said that he had studied to be an electrical lineworker at Kennebec Valley Technical College in Maine from 2000 to 2002.
Both Williams and Royer had attended Cony High School in Augusta, Maine.
Their bodies were found in the SUV early on Christmas morning, on Sanford Road — a dirt road near a wooded area and several gravel pits — near their own home being on Easy Street in Augusta.
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On Friday, police declined to speculate on the cause of death for Williams and Royer, leading to initial rumors that the couple may have died in some sort of suicide pact. After autopsies were completed on Saturday, police declared the deaths a double homicide, after medical examiners determined that they were killed by gunshot wounds, according to a report in The Portland Press-Herald newspaper.
Police discovered the bodies after responding to a 911 call from one of the victims that came in at about 3:30 a.m. on December 25.
Police records show that at 3:34 a.m., a call came in the Somerset County dispatcher reporting gunshots heard in the same area, according to a report in The Kennebec Journal. As of Sunday morning, investigators had not revealed whether they believed the gunshot report was related to the 911 call, or to the deaths of Bonnie Royer and Eric Williams.
Also not made public were the contents of that 911 call, or whether it was placed by Royer or Williams. Police did note that Williams was found dead in the driver’s seat of the vehicle with Royer in the passenger’s seat.
The Kennebec Journal report also said that Royer’s younger brother, Christian Royer, declined to offer information on his sister, saying that he needed to speak to her other siblings first.
Christian Royer posted an emotional message on his sister’s Facebook page on Christmas Day at 8:36 p.m.
“I love you so much I can’t believe ur gone it hurts so bad,” the victim’s brother wrote. “I know I’ve said alot of mean s*** to u but u ment the world to me as my sister and someone that saved my life once or twice when I was a baby. [sic]”
The Christmas day double murder is now under investigation by Maine State Police as well as the Kennebec County Sheriff’s Office, but in the early stages of the investigation, there appears to be little progress.
According to media reports, police want to figure out where the couple went on Christmas Eve and early Christmas morning, and with whom they might have come into contact, that could have led to their murders.
Several phone tips have come in to the state police, according to a spokesperson, but whether those tips have yielded any useful information in the deaths of Bonnie Royer and Eric Williams has yet to be determined.
[Photos via Facebook]
