Source: Union-News (Springfield, MA)
Author: ELIZABETH FREY
GOSHEN – Susan and Barry Richardson were building for a future they would not see.
On Wednesday afternoon, Susan Richardson shot herself to death behind the couple’s new home on Bissell Road. The couple had been working on the home for more than a year.
While police were investigating his wife’s death, Barry Richardson went to an upstairs room in the house and shot himself to death.
Their deaths have left residents in this small town asking why the deaths occurred and how they can help the two children left behind by the couple.
“When something like this happens in a small town it’s much more visible than in a larger city,” said School Committee Chairwoman Catherine D’Amato, who would like the town to provide emotional support for Barry Richardson’s two children from a previous marriage, Sarah, 13, and Jennifer, 9.
Goshen Center School Principal Donald McLeod said the school is bringing in counselors and psychologists to help the two children.
“We’ll mobilize whatever resources we have,” he said. “Small schools tend to be supportive when needed,” he said. “As time goes on it’s going to become more apparent to us what type of additional support the children will need.”
In time, residents say, they too will know how to help the family.
Barry Richardson, 36, had just received his paycheck and was in a good mood when he left his job at Bisbee Lumber in Chesterfield Wednesday afternoon, co-workers said yesterday.
“It’s kind of a shocker,” said Chuck Parsons, a co-worker at Bisbee Lumber who had known Richardson since high school. “You read about it happening to other people in other places,”
“It’s hard to even believe it’s true,” added Dora Emerson, another co-worker who knew the family.
The co-workers said Mrs. Richardson, who grew up in Williamsburg, was a high school athlete who played softball and basketball.
Before returning home from work, Richardson stopped at the Goshen General Store to pick up some cigarettes for himself and his wife, according to Raymond Morin, a selectman who spoke with Barry outside the store.
“He was fine when he was here,” he said, adding that they talked about the town’s new fire station and Richardson’s house, which was nearly completed.
When Richardson reached his home he found a note from his wife which led him to the woods 300 feet away. There he found the body of his wife, according to Lt. Edward Harrington of the State Police Crime Prevention and Control Unit of the Northwestern District Attorney’s Office.
While police were investigating the wife’s death, Barry Richardson killed himself in an upstairs room.
Autopsies revealed Susan Richardson, 40, died of a single self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest and Barry Richardson died of a single gun-shot wound to the head. The couple had been married about three years.
Police would not reveal the contents of the note, which will be analyzed to confirm Mrs. Richardsons’s handwriting. Police did say they understood there had been some marital problems in the past.