Former Denver Police Officer Found Dead In Nevada

LAS VEGAS (AP) - City officials in the rural Nevada city of Mesquite planned a moment of silence at a Tuesday evening City Council meeting following the gunshot deaths of a councilwoman and her husband in their home, a city spokesman said.

Police found the bodies of Donna Fairchild and Bill Fairchild before dawn Tuesday at their Mesquite house about 80 miles northwest of Las Vegas, according to a city statement. It appeared each died of a single gunshot wound, the statement said.

City spokesman Bryan Dangerfield told The Associated Press it would be premature to call the deaths a murder-suicide until a Clark County coroner's investigation is complete in four to six weeks.

Dangerfield said the scheduled council meeting would be held with a moment of silence to mourn Donna Fairchild and her husband.

The meeting agenda showed Donna Fairchild was facing removal as the city's delegate to the regional Nevada Development Authority business organization.

The Tuesday night meeting agenda said that a representative from the organization had contacted the mayor about comments Fairchild made "that were negative towards this agency."

It wasn't immediately clear what those comments were.

"Mesquite has lost two citizens that have devoted their life to public service," the statement said on behalf of the mayor, Susan Holecheck, and four other council members.

The city statement said the Fairchilds were married for 21 years, and moved to Mesquite in 1999 after both retired from the Denver Police Department.

It said Donna Fairchild was born in Munich, Germany, and lived in Izmir, Turkey, Delaware and Denver, where she was an emergency medical technician-paramedic, a news reporter for KIMN/KYGO radio, and a police officer and sergeant.

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