Valencia County sheriff's investigators have identified the man who apparently shot his girlfriend, then turned the gun on himself at their Las Maravillas home last Monday as 53-year-old David Bass, Deputy Ed Chavez told ABQjournal.com.

Now investigators are trying to locate relatives of the man, who is believed to have come from back east, Chavez told us.

Detective Lt. James Purdy told the Valencia County News-Bulletin last week that a 911 dispatcher got a call around 12:30 p.m. July 21 from a man who said he had accidentally shot his girlfriend and that he was going to shoot himself.

The dispatcher, who had kept the line open, heard a gunshot, Purdy told the paper.

When deputies arrived at the home at 23 Ash Place, they found a woman, identified as 53-year-old Terri Every, and the man later identified as Bass dead of gunshot wounds, as well as the bodies of two dogs who had been shot, the News-Bulletin said.

The couple had lived at the Las Maravillas address for two or three years, Chavez told ABQjournal.com.  Every is believed to have come from Illinois, and Bass from somewhere else in the eastern United States, he said.

Chavez said investigators withheld Bass' identity pending notification of his next of kin, but exhausted all leads trying to locate the dead man's relatives. 

Bass was described as 5 feet 10 inches tall, weighing 170 pounds, with brown eyes and greying brown hair, Chavez told ABQjournal.com.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Valencia County Sheriff's Office, (505) 866-2400 and ask for Detective Donges.