‘There are no words’: Friends remember double homicide victims

“It’s just a tragedy. I think we’re all trying to wrap our minds around it. There are no words,” Dr. Melissa Stiles, UW Health Family Medicine, tells NBC15 News via a phone interview.

For more than 20 years, Stiles worked alongside Dr. Beth Potter, 52, a victim of Tuesday’s double homicide at the UW Arboretum.

As NBC15 News first reported

, a jogger reported seeing two bodies in the UW Arboretum ditch at about 6:30 Tuesday morning. UW Police later identified them as Potter and her husband, 57-year-old Robin Carre. Carre died on the scene, and Potter died shortly after arriving at a nearby hospital.

Family friends are now paying tribute to the couple, saying they were staples of the Madison community.

“She had a way of just making you feel at ease. She was so generous and so kind. She was just so warm. You just wanted to be around Beth, everyone wanted to be around Beth,” Dr. Stiles says.

Potter worked as an associate professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, a physician at the Access Community Health Centers Wingra Family Medical Center, and as the Medical Director of Employee Health Services for UW Health.

Most recently, Potter took the lead on the COVID-19 pandemic, working to keep her associates and patients safe from the virus. Friends now say COVID-19 social distancing makes news of the couple’s death even harder to cope with.

“I would say it’s devastating, because everybody wants to get together and celebrate his life. And support one another in this tough time,” says Craig Carlson, who coached alongside Carre with the Regent Soccer Club.

Potter and Carre shared three children, Jonah, Ezra and Mimi. For more than 20 years, Carre coached soccer for his children and hundreds of others, through both Madison High School and Regent Soccer Club. Carlson says that work made a lasting impact on the area.

“I would have a hard time finding anybody that could say something bad about them. They were very unassuming, very humble, very appreciative of everyone else, and were never in line to get things. We will truly miss them,” Carlson says.

The UW Police Department believes this was not a random attack, saying Carre and Potter were targeted. From here, officers continue the investigation by following leads and speaking to people who may know more about what led up to the incident.

Those with information can call Madison Area Crime Stoppers at (608) 266-6014 or submit a tip online at