LOGAN, Utah, March 12, 2016 (Gephardt Daily) — The Logan City Police Department has identified the two Cache County residents found deceased Friday after a suspected murder-suicide.
The married couple was identified as Dell Andrew Johnson, 82, and Mary Flynn Palley, 73, of Logan.
The two were discovered after a handwritten letter was delivered to the Herald Journal, a Logan newspaper. The note said a tragedy had occurred, or was about to.
Logan City Police Chief Gary Jensen held a news conference Friday afternoon.
“In reading that letter, there was some concern as to the potential safety of the person who not only wrote the letter, but potentially his wife as well,” Jensen said.
“The Herald Journal contacted the Logan City Police Department, (an officer) responded, read the letter and agreed there was some concerning notions in the letter, and secondarily responded to the residence here at 1616 Sunset Drive in Logan.”
“We believe at this time this is an apparent murder-suicide in which the man took the life of his wife and then subsequently took his own life,” Jensen said.
The Herald Journal reported that besides the note, dated March 8, the envelope contained a copy of a letter to the New York Times, asking the East Coast paper to investigate the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and a $1,000 check offered as payment.
According to the Herald Journal, the note also stated, “I took my wife, Mary Palley, with me because her advancing Parkinson’s was robbing her of her mental faculties and filling her life with frustration and despair.”
