DERRY – As investigators await autopsy results for Claude and Judith Roberts, there is little doubt about how -- or why -- the couple ended up dead inside their home early Sunday.

"There were significant medical issues with both, but more with Mrs. Roberts," said Senior Assistant Attorney General Jeffery Strelzin yesterday. "It appears to be a situation driven by medical issues they had."

►UPDATE: Autopsy results confirm murder/suicide
►Police: Wife was alive when we arrived (3)

The situation is being characterized as a likely murder-suicide in which Claude Roberts, 78, shot his 73-year-old wife before turning the gun on himself early Sunday morning.

Details about specific medical conditions the Roberts were struggling with have not been released by authorities.

Derry police responded to an abandoned 911 call at about 5:22 a.m. Judith Roberts was found inside the home, wounded but unable to speak when police arrived. She was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital, where she later died. Her husband was pronounced dead at the scene, Strelzin said.

Autopsy results were expected within the next few days, Strelzin said.

Strelzin said that because one spouse apparently shot the other, it is technically still a matter of "domestic violence," but not in the typical sense.

Strelzin said the Roberts' case includes "written evidence" taken from the scene that has helped detectives piece together the events leading up to Sunday's discovery at the couple's Shilah Road home.

"When Derry police are finished investigating, we'll have as clear an understanding as possible of what medical issues the couple were facing," Strelzin said.

Next-door neighbors Carmen and Steve Robbe, interviewed Sunday, said Claude Roberts had come to their home Saturday to ask them to keep an eye on his place because he was scheduled for leg surgery yesterday. The Robbes said they were told that Roberts and his wife, a diabetic, were going to stay with their daughter for about a month while he recovered.

Although his office investigates a number of deaths that fall into the category of elderly suicide, notes are rarely found, said Strelzin, which does not surprise psychologist Betty Welch, director of Behavioral Health for Elliot Health System.

Suicide among New Hampshire's elderly population is more prevalent than teen suicide and is often an impulsive act carried out in a period of depression over illness or over feeling that you have become a burden to loved ones.

"Wile teens make more attempts than the elderly at taking their lives, when the elderly do attempt suicide, they are far more successful because the attempts are far more lethal," Welch said.

Common risk factors range from a sense of isolation and loneliness, to multiple medical illnesses or loss of finances, independence, home or spouse.

Rachel Lakin, administrator for the state's Department of Health and Human Services Adult Protective Services, said that in the case of elderly couples, when one serves as caregiver for the other, problems most often arise when health concerns multiply.

Although her mission is investigating reports of elder abuse, neglect or self-neglect, they will always follow up on anonymous phone calls from concerned neighbors or family members.

"Unless there are clear violations, our department won't take action. But we can make referrals if we find someone who has no heat or no food in the refrigerator," Lakin said.

The National Suicide Prevention 24-hour lifeline is 1-800-273-TALK. Other resources: National Alliance on Mental Illness online: www.naminh.org; to report cases of elderly abuse or neglect in New Hampshire: Adult Prevention Services intake line, 1-800-949-0470. M-F 8 a.m.-4 p.m.