By Dee DeQuattro, WPRO News

Police have determined that an incident that left two dead at a Loft Apartment unit in Pawtucket was a murder-suicide.

Shortly after noon time on Dec. 5 Pawtucket Police responded to Lofts 125 at 125 Goff Avenue in Pawtucket after the loft manager and a family member found 21-year-old Frederico Rico and 23-year-old Natasha Marshall dead in their apartment.

Preliminary autopsy results have determined the cause of death for Rico to be asphyxiation by hanging and the cause of death for Marshall to be asphyxiation due to strangulation. The Medical Examiner’s office ruled Marshall’s death a homicide. Rico was found with a coaxial cable cord tied around his neck and attached to a railing on the loft section of the apartment. Marshall was found dead in her bed.

Police believe Rico murdered Marshall before taking his own life. Several handwritten notes found throughout the apartment supported the conclusion. Police say that there were some signs of struggle inside the bedroom where Marshall was found.

Marshall was in the training academy at the Wyatt Detention Center and Rice was in the millitary.

Sources inside the building say the pair were high school sweethearts and indicate that the matter may have involved a love triangle situation. The couple lived together in the apartment.

The building is the former Union-Wadding Co. Mill. In 2010 it was the scene of a large fire that is suspect to have been arson.