BUFFALO, N.Y. - It hasn't been a year since Deborah and Harry Hubbard moved to Atlanta. Now police in Georgia are investigating their deaths as homicide.
The couple was found inside their home on Harvel and H.E. Holmes Drive on July 3 around 4 a.m. after a house fire. Arson investigators are looking to see if an accelerant was used to start the fire. The victims were found in different areas of the home.
The medical examiner ruled the couple died as a result of "strangulation and thermal injuries." According to the police report, "one victim had what appeared to be a cord around her neck."
The family is shocked by the crime. Keith Sylvester is the oldest son of Deborah. He said his mom moved to Atlanta last November, but was preparing to rent out her Georgia home and move back to Buffalo.
"My mother was a good mother. She was a grandmother. She's a veteran, she worked at Buffalo Veterans hospital and several other companies like Gioia when they were there (in Buffalo)," Sylvester said.
Deborah Jenkins Hubbard, 65 and Harry Hubbard, 67, were members of True Bethel Baptist Church in Buffalo. Pastor Darius Pridgen remembers them well as "well loved and a very stable couple active in their church."