Typically, the multiple killings required for a case to be categorized as murder-suicide happen a short time apart, with the murder happening before the suicide. In the case of a recently deceased 77-year-old Nova Scotia woman, it was the other way around and the two incidents were separated by dozens of years.

Deanna Mary Conant of Lawrencetown, Nova Scotia passed away Feb. 16, CBC reported. Thursday, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police announced that, since her death was related to a gunshot she suffered in 1976, her death was ruled a homicide. That means, legally speaking, it took more than four decades for Conant to die from the gunshot.

Conant was permanently disabled after Wesley Elvin Poole shot her in June 1976. Poole took his own life later that day, meaning the case is now officially classified as a murder-suicide. Police actually did not name the victim in their announcement Thursday, but thanks to newspaper reports from the date of the initial shooting, media was able to identify her as Conant. The case is now, officially, closed.

The team of pathologists that determined her cause of death had to be careful when making the judgment, according to Metro News. According to Dr. Matthew Bowes, the team had to look at minor “structural abnormalities” in her brain or spinal cord to determine that her disability, caused by the gunshot, was what led to her death.

"Uncomfortable truths are still truths and I think you'll find more families are grateful for the truth autopsies bring to that,” Bowes told Metro News.

Details are slim on the 1976 incident, though according to CBC, Poole shot Conant as the result of a “domestic quarrel.” Though the two did not live together, they reportedly knew each other before Poole shot her with a rifle.

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