Just a few days after their 21st wedding anniversary, a husband and wife who were battling illness were discovered dead in their home with their two dogs.
On Tuesday at 9am, police located Steven Alton Stearns, 45, Stacy Lynn Stearns, 49, and their two dogs in their Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, home.
On September 21, the cancer-stricken couple had just celebrated their wedding anniversary.
According to INFORUM, Steven recently received an uncurable lung cancer diagnosis, and Stacy was battling stomach cancer.
However, as authorities learned that the Stearns death was a murder-suicide, things took an even grimmer turn.
Stacy’s death was deemed a homicide and Steven’s death a suicide by the Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office.
“They’ve always had a pact that, ‘We will go together,'” Tammy Lawrence, who camped with the couple at the Shell Lake Resort, told the outlet.
The Stearns told their friend about their suicide pact.
“He made me promise not to say anything to anybody,” Lawrence said.
“Stacy did not want him to tell me, but he said, ‘I can’t look in your eyes and lie to you anymore, and somebody has to be able to tell people why we are going to do what we were going to do.'”
Lawrence added: “They said, ‘What kind of life would it be in and out of the hospital with chemo? It’s not a life.'”
She said that Steven failed to provide a timeframe for their action.
The pair predicted Steven would live until his birthday on October 1, Lawrence continued.
But during the following two days, according to the source, his health quickly deteriorated.
On Tuesday morning, the coupled posted on Facebook.
They said: “To our loved ones. We chose to leave this world as we lived in it.
“In love and together. Our only regret is the sorrow to our loved ones.
“Remember the laughter and happiness We love you. Goodbye.”
A short Will was also attached to the post.
