This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Before his violent death, Ryan Patrick was a nature-loving poet who learned to read and write old Norse and was "a good soul," his father said.
"He was very intelligent," Kirk Patrick said of Ryan, 32, who was stabbed to death Friday in Price.
Price police Chief Aleck Shilaos on Monday said he still isn't sure why the man accused of the killing, Jordan Wilcox, 21, stabbed Patrick.
"My guess is it has [to do with] money, but what the money was over, I don't know," said Shilaos, who retires as Price's police chief at the end of the month.
Wilcox remains in the Carbon County jail on suspicion of murder.
He has not been formally charged.
The stabbing happened about 4:30 p.m. Friday in the driveway of a home near 300 North and 100 East.
An argument between the two men escalated, police said in a news release, after Patrick made aggressive moves toward Wilcox. During the struggle, Wilcox stabbed the other man in the chest with a large kitchen knife, police said.
A homeowner who saw the fight called police. Patrick was pronounced dead at Castleview Hospital.
Kirk Patrick said he does not know Wilcox or what dealings he may have had with his son.
Ryan Patrick previously managed a car maintenance shop in Grand Junction, Colo., but spent the past year living in Price with his parents, his father said. Ryan Patrick loved to read and write poetry and short stories and filled journals with writings in Norse, Kirk Patrick said. He also was studying Greek.
Ryan Patrick also was an avid hiker, angler and skateboarder, Kirk Patrick said.
"He loved me and his mother and his sister," Kirk Patrick said. "He always wanted to be helpful."
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