The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

DAYTON - Suzanne Shuba was always a talkative member of the Crazy Crafters, a group of about a dozen Dayton ladies who get together on Thursdays to try out new craft techniques from painting on rocks to making corn husk dolls.

Shuba, who joined the group about a year ago, loved creating new objects and bringing out old ones she found at the South Third Street home passed down by a late relative, who left behind antique dolls and quilts.

She liked to take designs from books and magazines, then try making them herself, said Lois Hemphill, one of the informal group's coordinators. And, she had a ready laugh.

"She liked to have a good time," Hemphill said.

But Shuba rarely talked about her personal life and never about her relationship with her husband of more than three decades, Joseph Vernon Shuba, whom she married in San Mateo County, Calif., and who was expected to be charged Wednesday with her murder.

Little is known about the Shubas, both in their late 50s, who moved to Dayton in June 2010.

From all accounts, the retired couple who came here from California seemed happily married and content.

"She was a very nice lady with a very kind heart," said Debbie Ayerst, a neighbor from across the street. "She did everything for him. She was good to him."

To friends and neighbors, the alleged fatal shooting of which Joseph Shuba is accused, came as a complete surprise from a couple that generally kept to themselves, was friendly to everyone in the neighborhood and had no local police history of domestic troubles whatsoever.

"It seems so unreal," said Hemphill. "It's hard to believe something like this could happen anywhere. Everybody's kind of in shock."

The closest family friend, Donna Fone, who walked into the house shortly after the shooting and told a friend she would "never forget" what she witnessed, could not be reached for comment.

The couple has two adult children who still reside in California and were en route to Dayton Tuesday, according to the Hubbard-Rogg Funeral Home in Dayton. They could not be reached either. Obituary information for Suzanne Shuba had not yet been released by the family.

Described as the "grandparents" of their South Third Street block, Joseph and Suzanne were friendly with neighbors who would attend gatherings at neighbor's homes and would always stop to chat on the sidewalk.

Suzanne Shuba, 59, was born in 1953, presumably married the slightly younger Joseph in her twenties, raised their two children, and according to one friend, worked for a while as an institutional cook.

Joseph, 58, was born a year later, reportedly worked as a logger and a landscaper.

Neither was employed while living in Dayton.

Joseph was injured in a car accident in December and scheduled to have surgery to his neck this week.

But at least one friend said it didn't seem the accident had affected the couple's relationship.

One neighbor said Joseph did not seem to be "the restless type," but was small and unassuming. With his small stature, the only characteristic that would set him out from a crowd would be his long, gray beard, the neighbor added.

"We're just in total shock," said one acquaintance. "But behind closed doors, who knows what people are like?"