Bathurst is still reeling following the news that the bodies of cafe owner Elie Issa and his partner, Bathurst Real Estate sales consultant Nadia Cameron, were found dead inside Mr Issa’s Rosemont Avenue home on Friday morning.

The couple were well-known in Bathurst business and social circles and their photos have regularly appeared in the pages of the Western Advocate.

Such a shocking event challenges the media to report responsibly and with integrity and we at the Western Advocate have done our share of soul-searching in recent days in our attempt to do just that.

In doing so, we have sought to resist the temptation to reduce this sorry story to a series of salacious revelations that may or may not bring us closer to the truth.

Nor is it our job to take sides at a time when two families and many, many friends are still grieving the loss of two people who meant so much to so many.

The Sydney media cannot possibly understand the impact these deaths have had on our community and does not feel the same sense of responsibility to objectively report on the case.

Because the police – and, ultimately, the coroner – are the right people, and the only people, to investigate this tragedy and come to some conclusions about what has happened.

And as each of those conclusions is properly revealed, this newspaper will report the news and leave it to our readers to draw their judgments.

We owe that much to our readers, at least.