Marc Gagné, 80, and Rita Fortin, 78, were from Saint-Côme-Linière, Quebec. Like thousands of Canadian "snow birds" they escaped to Florida during winter. (Radio-Canada)

Canadian couple’s deaths in Florida being treated as homicide

Investigators are treating the deaths of an elderly Canadian couple found inside their mobile home in Pompano Beach on Friday evening as a homicide, according to officials at the Broward County Sheriff’s Office.

A neighbour discovered the bodies of Marc Gagné, 80, and Rita Fortin, 78, at about 5:40 pm on Friday.

Neighbors had become increasingly concerned after not seeing the couple for a few of days, said Keyla Concepcion, a spokesperson for the Broward County Sheriff’s Office.

When nobody answered the door, the neighbour entered the mobile home and found the bodies of Gagné and Fortin.

Concepcion would not say whether there are any suspects.

Robert Forest, originally from Burlington, Ontario, who has been the couple’s neighbour in Florida for the last 21 years, told Radio-Canada the last time he saw Gagné was on Tuesday, when he was outside his home raking leaves.

“We chatted and laughed,” Forest told Radio-Canada.

On Wednesday, another couple from the neighbourhood, also friends with the deceased, stopped by and told Forest they were looking for Gagné and Fortin. They said they had been trying to phone Gagné, but weren’t getting an answer.

Neighbours thought the couple may have gone to visit relatives nearby. But by Friday, they decided it was time to check on them. They found the screen door open and main entrance unlocked. A friend of the couple decided to go in while her husband and Forest waited outside.

“She yelled and came running out and said, ‘I think there’s somebody on the floor,’” Forest told Radio-Canada.

Forest then went in and said he found Gagné on the floor, just partly out of his bedroom, and Fortin was down the hall.

“There was lots of blood,” Forest said. “It’s just so, so sad that it could happen to them.”

Anyone with information about the case is encouraged to contact the Broward County Sheriff’s Office at 954-321-4262, Concepcion said. There is a $3,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest, she added.

With files from Radio-Canada and Isaac Olson of CBC News

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