Slain couple had just started romance

FREDERICTON — The new relationship had been announced with a little blue heart posted on Facebook, but just days later a gunman in an apartment window brought it to a violent end.

For close friends and relatives of Bobbie Lee Wright, 32, and Donald Adam Robichaud, 42, the shooting deaths came as a stunning blow, ending the lives of two quiet people preparing for an outdoor adventure together.

“They were going to go zip lining after work. They were packing up the car before work and that’s when they got shot,” said Melissa Robichaud, Donald’s wife, from whom he recently separated.

Soon after, two officers from the Fredericton police were also gunned down as they responded to the shots being fired in the north end of Fredericton.

“All four of those people were loved, very loved,” said Robichaud.

The 36-year-old resident of Traceyville, N.B., said she’d been with her husband for 22 years.

Robichaud has two teenaged sons, Zakkery and Draiden, and a daughter, Chloe, and is survived by his mother, Jean, she said. The children’s names are tattooed on his neck.

“He was a good man,” said Robichaud, adding that he’d worked hard as a commercial painter and later as an autobody mechanic to support his family.

He had a passion for music, playing bass, drums and singing across New Brunswick until arthritis slowed the pace of his playing, she said.

Relatives of Bobbie Lee Wright were unavailable for comment, as a cousin said they were struggling with intense grief.