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Authorities say couple died in double suicide By JULIE SWENSEN A White City couple whose bodies were found at Lake of the Woods last week died in a double suicide, authorities say. Jerry Middleton, 44, and Pamela Middleton, 35, each had been shot once through the mouth, an autopsy has determined. The pair were found embracing, and each had a hand on a .25-caliber pistol. Pamela Middleton owned a gun of the same make and model. "It looks like they both were intending to commit suicide," said Mike Frome, Klamath County deputy district attorney. Frome said it appeared as if "one helped another one do it." Frome said there was no note or clues left as to why the couple would commit suicide, but he said Pamela Middleton previously had attempted to take her life. Jerry Middleton's mother, Dorothy, of Mount Shasta, Calif., said Wednesday she had no idea why her son and daughter-in-law would commit suicide. "It just totally blew me away," she said. The Middletons were last seen June 20 when they visited Jerry Middleton's parents and his son in Mount Shasta. According to the Siskiyou County sheriff's office, the couple said they'd sleep on the front lawn that night, but the next morning, they and their pickup truck were gone. Their unclothed bodies were found in the pickup last weekend by snowmobilers eight miles off Dead Indian Memorial Road inside Klamath County. Police believe the bodies had been there since the end of June. The couple applied for a marriage license in Jackson County in June 1997. Dorothy Middleton said her son worked for a logging company and had two sons aged 21 and 22 from a previous marriage. Pamela Middleton worked for a business in Ashland that made boxes and mousetraps, her mother-in-law said. Pamela had three sons aged 12, 14 and 18, and a daughter who's 19. "I'm glad to know now where they're at," Dorothy Middleton said. "I don't have to keep waiting for them to come home." (The Associated Press contributed to this story.) Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1998, Medford, Oregon USA