CUMBERLAND — A 42-year-old Cumberland woman and her 51-year-old husband were found dead inside their home Wednesday morning.
Both Courtney Huard and Eric Huard had been shot and were pronounced dead after police went to their home at 28 Birchwood Drive, according to Cumberland Police Chief Matthew Benson.
Benson identified the couple by name early Thursday afternoon and said little about the police investigation into the facts and circumstances of the shooting.
"The investigation so far indicates that this was not a random act of violence," said Benson, who added that investigators still consider the shooting an "isolated incident."
All three of the couple's children were found unharmed in the home after police went to the house at 6:40 a.m. for a report of "two adults suffering from gunshot wounds," Benson said.
"I would like to reiterate my deepest condolences and sympathies to the Huard family, including any friends and family and especially the three children left during this most difficult time," Benson added.
On Birchwood Drive Wednesday, police cordoned off the yard outside the Huard's nicely kept, Cape-style house with tan siding and black shutters. There was a free-standing basketball hoop, and a trampoline on the front lawn.
One of Courtney Huard's close friends from Cumberland High School, Andrea Neville, grew up on Birchwood Drive in a house that was right next door to the Huards' house, which the couple purchased in 2012.
On Thursday, Neville Galgay remembered her friend as someone who was fun and who made her laugh.
"If you got to see Courtney in a given day," she said, "it made your day better."
In high school, Huard, whose name was Courtney Carpenter, became a standout cross-country runner and regularly made the honor roll, according to The Providence Journal archives.
She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Rhode Island in 2003 with a bachelor's degree in science.
Eric Huard grew up in Saylesville in Lincoln.
His LinkedIn page says he studied at Lincoln High School, Community College of Rhode Island, the University of Rhode Island, and commercial photography at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
He worked in photography in the 1990s, including as a photojournalist at The Pawtucket Times, according to the LinkedIn page.
In 1999, it says, he joined the MacColl Field YMCA in Lincoln, where he worked for 19 years, directing aquatics and the sports program.
During the summer of 2004, when Lincoln sent a Little League team to the World Series in Pennsylvania, Huard put up a message on the YMCA's marquee, which was easily seen by people traveling Breakneck Hill Road in Lincoln.
"Good Luck Lincoln Little League," said the message. "Good Luck and Have Fun."
Later that fall, a photo that Huard took at the YMCA of Pawtucket's 115th anniversary celebration was published in The Providence Journal.
The couple married the following year in September in a ceremony at St. John Vianney Church in Cumberland, according to a wedding announcement that was published in The Journal.
Courtney Huard had been licensed as a dietician in Rhode Island since 2005, according to information posted online by the Rhode Island Department of Health.
In March of this year, she posted on Facebook that she had started a new job at True Self Nutrition Counseling, a company she had founded.
Her Facebook page describes her startup as a small group private practice supporting people "disordered eating, eating disorders, chronic dieting and selective/picky eating (and more)."
"We enjoy helping clients develop a healthier relationship with food and body," says the post.
"Through an open, accepting and caring style," it says, "our dieticians work to support and empower clients towards self-care, body respect and body trust practices."