RCMP are investigating two sudden deaths in the western Saskatchewan town of Eston — a case they're describing as a murder-suicide.

Dead are Patricia Lockwood, 47, and Shaun Rodgers, 47, the man whom police believe shot her to death.

At around 2:15 a.m. on Tuesday, police were called to a home in the town about 400 kilometres northwest of Regina, where Lockwood was found. Police said she had been shot.

Despite lifesaving attempts by a person in the house, she died at the scene, police said.

Later in the day, the body of Rodgers was found in a different home in the Eston area. The man, dead of an apparent suicide, had been considered a suspect in Lockwood's death, the RCMP said.

Officers had been executing a search warrant at the house when they found him, the RCMP said.

Police said Rodgers and Lockwood had been in a common-law relationship.

Al Heron, mayor of the town of 1,000, said local churches are offering assistance to anyone who needs it.

"It's just a very difficult time," Heron said.

Autopsies have been completed on Rodgers and Lockwood, but the reports are not in yet, the RCMP said.