Police are investigating the deaths of a young Augusta couple found Friday morning in Manchester as a suspicious case.

The Maine State Police identified them early Friday evening as Eric Williams, 35, and Bonnie Royer, 26.

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They were found dead early Christmas morning in a sport utility vehicle parked in Manchester near the Augusta city line. The two lived together on Easy Street, less than a mile from where the SUV was found, said Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety.

One of the victims had called 911 about 3:30 a.m., leading police to the scene. According to the Somerset County dispatch log, a complaint about shots being fired at about the same location in Manchester was made at 3:34 a.m.

In a news conference at the scene, Lt. Jeffrey Love, from the state police major crimes unit, said the man was in the front driver’s seat of the vehicle and the woman was in the passenger seat. Love would not say who made the 911 call, but he said both were dead when authorities arrived.

“It’s too early to draw any conclusions,” Love said. “We have called it a suspicious death at this point, but we need to gather more information.”

He did not say whether police were looking for any suspects.

State police, along with the Kennebec County Sheriff’s Office and the Augusta Police Department, were conducting the investigation, and Love expected it to continue throughout the day.

The Maine-registered red SUV was found parked a short distance off Sanford Road, a dirt road, and state police detectives were investigating the circumstances of the deaths.

The two bodies were taken to the state medical examiner’s office for autopsies and the SUV was to be taken to the state police crime laboratory.

Police had blocked off Sanford Road and a section of nearby Mount Vernon Road. Members of the sheriff’s office and Taylor Slemmer of the medical examiner’s office were also at the scene, which is wooded and remote.

Paula Fike, who lives nearby, said near the scene Friday that she heard sirens after waking up about 4 a.m. Heidi Wheeler, who lives nearby on Summerhaven Road, said she also heard sirens and that there are lots of children living in the area. Wheeler said she was shocked that two bodies had been found down the road from her house.

Police said the SUV was found at the entrance of a gravel pit, a few hundred yards beyond the intersection with Mount Vernon Road. The road becomes Summerhaven Road, which stretches from Manchester into Augusta and is popular with bicyclists and all-terrain vehicle riders.

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