A Winsford dog breeder and trainer shot his estranged wife twice in the back, locked her friend in an outbuilding and, while armed police were searching the couple’s home, put a sawn-off shot gun to his head.

At the double inquest on Wednesday (June 30) into the deaths of John and Deborah Zurick, senior coroner Tony Williams concluded, on the balance of probabilities, that Mrs Zurick, known as Debbie, was unlawfully killed and John died by suicide.

Debbie, 56, died outside Nethercote Cottage, Winsford, on February 22, 2020, and her 67-year-old husband – whom she was leaving – in a Plymouth hospital on February 27, 2020. He was identified by his fingerprints.

The inquests, held in Taunton, heard a summary of a 100-page report of an interview that Debbie’s close friend Elizabeth Murphy gave to police on February 23.

In this she said they had been on holiday in Ireland, without John, when Debbie met a man who later asked her to move in with him. She did so in December 2019. On February 18, Debbie came over from Ireland to collect some belongings and dogs.

On February 21, she went to Elizabeth’s home and ‘seemed nervous’, so asked Elizabeth to go with her to Nethercote Cottage the next day. There, the atmosphere became tense and at about noon Elizabeth suggested leaving.

“Debbie wanted to walk the dogs … John said he would go with her … he did not appear to have a gun with him.

“The next thing Elizabeth remembered was John flinging open the door with a shotgun over his arm. He said ‘I’ve shot Debbie. You can f--- off’. Elizabeth said ‘What do you mean?’; John said ‘She’s down there’.”

Elizabeth found Debbie ‘as if she was on her knees praying’. She touched Debbie, whose head moved towards her friend’s hand. Elizabeth ran back to the house to call for an ambulance.

“John blocked the door, shoved Elizabeth away and said ‘I am going to kill myself now’.”

Describing a two and a half-hour ordeal, the statement said that John grabbed Elizabeth by the wrists, pushed her into a wooden outbuilding and locked the door.

The statement added: “Elizabeth opened the window to see if she could get out, but John was just outside.”

He returned with some screws to fasten the window but realised there was another window, so he dragged her, by the wrists, to the stables, which were used as dog kennels.

After about two hours, John returned and said ‘Please tell everybody I am sorry’, and also ‘If I can’t have her, no-one can. I am going now’.

After hearing a ‘muffled bang’, Elizabeth climbed out of a window and went straight to Debbie, who was no longer in the same place or position. She believed John had moved her.

In a statement following the police interview, Elizabeth said: “While locked in the stable, I heard John moving about outside. I don’t believe Debbie was capable of moving herself.”

Elizabeth dialled 999 and took police advice to get out and away from the cottage. She noticed a helicopter hovering overhead.

Home Office pathologist Dr Debbie Cook said in a statement that there were two shotgun wounds in Debbie Zurick’s back: “Either of those wounds would have been rapidly but not instantly fatal.”

Ballistics expert and forensic scientist Robert Griffiths said in a statement: “Deborah’s injuries were not self-inflicted and did not occur during a struggle.”

Senior coroner Tony Williams found: “Deborah Zurick was shot twice in the back by John and subsequently he turned the gun on himself.

“My conclusion is that Deborah Zurick was unlawfully killed.”More reports on the Zurick's deaths in this week's Free Press (July 2)