Deputies Arrest Elderly Man Accused Of Wife's Murder

UNIVERSITY PLACE, WA — The Pierce County Sheriff's Department has arrested an elderly University Place man and accused him of the murder of his wife.

According to the Sheriff's Department, early Monday the woman's husband, a 78-year-old man, told staff at a nearby hospital that he had been in a physical fight with his 74-year-old wife.

In response, deputies working with the University Place Police Department were called to do a welfare check on the woman in her home in the 5600 block of 61st Ave. West. They arrived just before 1 p.m. and quickly found the woman dead inside the home.

The Sheriff's Department says forensics investigators and detectives are still searching the home to determine exactly what happened and how the woman died, but her husband has been arrested. Officers say they took him into custody at the home, and plan to book him into the Pierce County Jail on murder charges.