This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A Duchesne man accused of murder allegedly told detectives he stabbed his wife to death to euthanize her and then tried to kill himself.
The body of Mary Ratliff, 82, was found in her home Saturday after a family friend received a package containing a suicide note and $7,000 for burial expenses from Ratliff's husband, Charles Edward Dodd, according to charges filed Wednesday in 8th District Court.
Previously, the friend said, Dodd, 75, had been depressed and told her that "the end will come," according to other court documents. The package she received included two notes. One explained the money was for the couple's burial — "and it wasn't drug money," Dodd wrote. The other claimed that "it's a little too late" and someone was "going to take Mary away" because of something that happened to Dodd's head, he wrote.
Officers went to the couple's home, near 60 West and 300 South, and found Ratliff lying on a hospital-type bed, with multiple puncture wounds in her chest, deputies wrote. Dodd was found unconscious in a chair in the same room. He also had a puncture wound in his chest and a cut on the back of his head, investigators wrote. A bloody hunting knife was on the table next to Ratliff's bed.
Dodd was taken by ambulance to the Uintah Basin Medical Center and was later flown to a Salt Lake City hospital.
After he regained consciousness, Dodd told investigators that his wife was in constant pain, and the couple several times had discussed "ending it," the charge states. Ratliff's ailment is not described, but Dodd allegedly told police that by Saturday, "enough was enough." Dodd said he left the notes and money at their friend's office and returned to his home, investigators wrote.
Mindy Hendricks, a neighbor to the couple, said neighbors have "mixed emotions" about what happened.
Hendricks said she knew Ratliff was confined to a bed. She heard that Ratliff's daughter was going to move her mother into the daughter's home along with Dodd.
"I just know he agreed to move" Hendericks said.
Dodd said he waited until Ratliff was "semi asleep" and stabbed her where he thought her heart was, deputies wrote. Ratliff did not die immediately, so he stabbed her again, the charge states.
After Ratliff died, Dodd swallowed a handful of pills, held the knife to his chest and used the wall to push the knife into his body, police wrote. He said the next thing he remembered he was waking in the hospital.
Dodd was charged with one count of first-degree felony murder.
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