Barbara Nugent Bitterman (Photo provided —  Ann Nugent Morford)

LAKE PLACID — Many in this village are mourning after a native Lake Placid woman and her husband were found dead last week in Florida, in what police there are now calling a murder-suicide.

More than 1,500 miles to the south, Collier County Florida Sheriff’s Office deputies continue to investigate the circumstances surrounding the deaths of Lake Placid native Barbara Nugent Bitterman, 61, and her husband Michael Bitterman, 74. Police found the deceased couple at their residence in North Naples Wednesday afternoon after someone checking on the Bitterman residence set off an alarm, alerting police.

Autopsies have been completed on both bodies, though police are unsure what it has uncovered as they are still waiting on a medical examiner’s report for further details, Collier County Florida Sheriff’s Office Media Relations Officer Michelle Batten said Monday afternoon. Batten added that it may take several days for the sheriff’s office to receive the report.

Detectives found a shotgun at the crime scene while two suitcases packed with clothes were found in another room at the residence, according to a Collier County Sheriff’s Office incident report.

Batten added Monday afternoon that Collier County police still do not have enough information to determine when the incident took place or the nature of what occurred leading to both deaths.

“At this point it is still an active investigation, as far as motive,” Batten said. “In order to determine that, we need the autopsy results.”

The couple lived in Florida but spent much time here in Barbara Bitterman’s hometown each year, taking particular interest in the Lake Placid Horse Shows, to which they contributed financially through sponsorships. Barbara Bitterman, then Barbara Nugent, was a 1974 graduate of Lake Placid High School.

Her sister Ann Nugent Morford, of Lake Placid, described the past week as very difficult for the Nugent family.

“Any person that you come in contact with is going to tell you that she was the kindest giving, sweetest person,” Morford said of her younger sister. “Caring – so caring. She never had a not-nice word to say about anybody.”

Morford added that the family plans to hold a service for her late sister in Lake Placid at the end of the month, though plans are on hold due to the ongoing investigation by the sheriff’s office. Morford said her sister will be buried in Lake Placid.

“In her heart, she will be buried here, where she belongs,” Morford said, “because this is where she loved.”

Morford said in recent years her younger sister and Michael Bitterman would visit each summer, staying on Lake Placid.

“She loved the people,” Morford said, “the people who she knew, the people who live here, who have always lived here, forever and ever. And she would even get to know the new people. And she’d seek (out) people, the ones she grew up with and would never forget. She always looked them up when she came.”

Morford described her sister as a second mother to her own children.

“My children were her children,” Morford said, “because she never had children. She would always live through my children, treating them as her own.”

Morford added that her sister loved animals, including her dogs at home and the horses she’d see at the show grounds.

Lori Martin, the executive director of the Lake Placid Horse Shows, said Barbara Bitterman was a turf and field club hostess many years ago for the event. Martin said Barbara Bitterman’s adoration for the horse shows never dissipated through the years. Her support continued until as recently as a month ago, when Martin said she called about the couple’s annual financial donation.

“She absolutely loved the horse shows and made it possible whenever she could to make it to every show,” Martin said.

“She was a just a force,” Martin added, “a part of our family, and she will be very much missed.”

Martin added that the horse shows plans to purchase a brick on their walk of fame in memory of the Bittermans.

Martin said she had been friends with Barbara Bitterman for 30 years and described her as an outgoing person who was easy to get along with and made everyone she met feel special.

“I wouldn’t say she had one best friend,” Martin recalled. “She had lots of best friends.”