AUGUSTA — Detectives from the Maine State Police spent Sunday investigating the gunshot slayings of an Augusta couple whose bodies were found early Christmas morning in a vehicle just over the city line in Manchester.

Eric Williams, 35, and his girlfriend, Bonnie Royer, 26, were found dead in Williams’ sport utility vehicle off Sanford Road in Manchester after police responded to a 911 call from one of the victims about 3:30 a.m. Friday.

On Saturday night, the state police declared the deaths a double homicide, saying autopsies confirmed that both victims died of gunshot wounds.

State police spokesman Stephen McCausland said Sunday afternoon that there were no new developments in the investigation.

“A full team of detectives are working today primarily out of the old state police headquarters on Hospital Street,” he said. McCausland said detectives were doing a number of interviews and following up on all the leads they received from the public after seeking help tracking the couple’s whereabouts on Dec. 24.

McCausland said items found in the SUV and at the crime scene were taken to the State Police Crime Laboratory and will be examined starting Monday.

Autopsies on the bodies of Williams and Royer were performed Saturday, and a spokesman for the Office of Chief Medical Examiner said no details will be forthcoming from there because the case remains under investigation.

Police spent Friday at the scene on Sanford Road where Williams’ SUV was found, blocking the road all day. That location was not far from the Easy Street home where the couple had been living.

McCausland refused to say what items were found at the scene.

“There’s a great deal of evidence we have gathered, none of which we’re going to talk about,” he said. “It’s too early.”

On Sunday, Royer’s father, Paul Mansir Jr. of Whitefield, said he last spoke to his daughter on Dec. 21 and they talked about their holiday plans.

“The last thing I said to her was ‘I love you,'” Mansir said.

Mansir said Royer had been raising her daughter, McKenzie, 6, and planning to go to school, hoping to attend the University of Maine at Augusta to prepare for a job in the medical field, possibly as a drug counselor.

“She did love her daughter very much,” Mansir said. He added that Royer liked going to her grandfather’s camp on Lake Cobbossee. “She liked to hike and do outdoors things.”

Royer’s daughter is currently living with her father in Cumberland County, Mansir said.

Mansir’s girlfriend, Vicki Beloin, started a gofundme page Sunday to help raise money for Royer’s funeral expenses.

“This is not something her parents, let alone the whole family, expected, and any help would be greatly appreciated,” Beloin says on the site. By 5 p.m. the first day, it had raised $900 toward the $5,000 goal.

Mansir said the family had not yet made funeral arrangements.

Attempts to reach the Williams family late Sunday were met with a busy signal.

McCausland recommended that people remain aware of their surroundings.

“The public just needs to be vigilant,” he said. “If something doesn’t look right in a neighborhood, call the police.”

“We’ve now had three homicides in Greater Augusta in just over a month,” McCausland said.

A New York City man, Damik Davis, is behind bars charged with murder in the Nov. 23 slaying of Joseph G. Marceau, 31, of Augusta on the fourth floor of an apartment building on Washington Street. No details about how Marceau was killed have been released, and court documents in the case remain impounded.

 

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