Three in one week

This, as a friend of mine would put it, sucks.

The owners of a local mortgage company were found dead of apparent suicides within hours of each other Thursday night, leaving those who knew them wondering if a bad economy and hard-hit mortgage industry were too much for them to take.

Dwight Deely, 50, of Ester, and Linda Patrick 61, of Fairbanks, started Evergreen Pacific Services Mortgage Co. in 1999 when they separated from a parent company in Seattle. … Deely…was found dead in his Ester home of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. Patrick’s body was found a few hours later near the South Cushman Street dike. Authorities say that she likely died of a prescription drug overdose, though an autopsy will be performed.