The deaths of two lesbians last week in Statesboro has been ruled a murder-suicide.

Investigators say Kiona Thais Lively (photo left), 27, shot Naumbyia T. German, 26, several times before setting German’s body and the house on fire May 6.

Then, Lively “took her own life with a small caliber firearm,” he said. “This crime apparently occurred during a domestic dispute between the two females who were romantically involved.”

The women, who considered themselves married since a ceremony in Toronto, Canada in March, 2007, lived together in the Harden Road home with German’s mother, who suffers from Huntington’s disease, said Statesboro Police Capt. Scott Brunson.

Autopsies by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation showed that German was shot several times and suffered burns to her body after she died. Lively died from a single shot to the chest.

“We grew up together, went to school together,” said Simone Jenkins, her voice choked with tears as she spoke about German. “She was my little sister.”

Nicknamed “Pooh,” German was “so sweet and so good,” Jenkins said. “Her only fault was she fell in love with the wrong woman.” Jenkins said Lively and German had been in a troubled relationship for some time, and German wanted out not only for her sake but for her mother’s, “because of all the fighting and arguing.”

But Lively did not want the relationship to end, she said. “She wouldn’t let her leave.”

Watch a television news clips about the story here.

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