Las Vegas couple end lives outside Florida church where they married

Patricia and Bruce Wright were barely adults when they married forty years ago at a Charlotte County church in Florida.

On Sunday, the Las Vegas couple returned to the church — not to reminisce, but to end their lives.

"It was a romantic tragedy," nephew Daniel Johnson, 28, said in a phone conversation Wednesday. "Life started for the two of them there, and that’s officially where life ended for them."

A pastor found the couple about 7:30 a.m. Sunday under a tree behind Friendship United Methodist Church. A rifle and shotgun were beside their bodies.

Charlotte County police said the couple killed themselves in an apparent suicide pact.

Bruce Wright, 60, died at the scene. Patricia Wright, 57, died in a hospital Tuesday.

Johnson and three relatives — including Patricia Wright’s mother, older sister and brother — drove together from Albuquerque, N.M., to Florida upon hearing about the shooting.

Johnson said his family had no answers to the inevitable question: Why?

"For us, it was a situation where we thought some things had gone bad in their lives. Maybe they went into debt, or the stock market kicked them around," Johnson said. "But in reality, we have no idea about their financial situation."

The Wrights were family, but not close family, he said.

Johnson last saw them two years ago, when the couple spoke of leaving Las Vegas and moving to California.

Johnson doesn’t think they ever made it to California, however.

As of their last correspondence, both were in Las Vegas. Bruce Wright was working in sound production, and Patricia Wright was working at a hospital, he said.

"The next thing I know is we’re being told they’re in Punta Gorda, Florida, and they’re deceased," he said.

Johnson said the couple had no children and rarely communicated with other family members, aside from the occasional letter.

He wouldn’t classify the couple as drifters, although they had lived in Florida, Alaska and Washington, he said.

No records of property ownership in Clark County were found.

"I don’t want to say they were black sheep because they weren’t, but they were odd sheep," Johnson said.

On Wednesday, Johnson said his mother and grandmother were meeting with a funeral director in Florida and trying to arrange for Patricia Wright’s organs to be donated.

Johnson expects the family will return to Albuquerque sometime next week, but he wasn’t certain.

"It’s taking awhile to sort everything out," he said.

Patricia Wright had five other siblings. She was survived by her mother; her father died last year.

Johnson said he didn’t know much about Bruce Wright’s side family, he said, or why the couple were in Florida.

Were they vacationing and made a spontaneous decision? Were they in debt? Were they ill?

"We want to figure out what’s going on and put people at ease," Johnson said.

"But honestly, all we have is a few facts, and everything else is speculation."