SOUTH PARIS (WGME) — More than 100 people showed out Saturday night to Moore Park in South Paris to honor the lives of a couple shot to death on New Years Day.
According to police, Heather Bickford and Dana Hill, both 31, were both shot to death inside Hill’s apartment by Bickford’s ex-boyfriend, Mark Penley.
“They were very much in love,” vigil organizer Coleen Elias said. “Maybe there’s some peace knowing they’re still together.”
Organizers of the vigil said the couple’s murder has hit close to home for the close knit community.
“It still doesn’t seem real it’s absolutely horrifying to think that, that happened,” friend Amy Downs said. “My kids go to her house Tuesday night and she messaged me she couldn’t take them and little did I know that was 3 hours before she was killed.”
Friends says the focus now turns to Bickford’s two young daughters and trying to spread the word that tragedies like this can be avoided.
“It is hard to get out of a domestic violence situation but this shouldn’t be the outcome ever,” Elias said. “Anything that can be done out of this tragedy for her and Dana’s lives to not be gone in vain, that would be a miracle.”
