Wife of slain Dallas jogger commits suicide two weeks after husband’s machete murder

"He held doors open for her. He got excited about putting together new furniture. They had no kids. For 25 years they were all they needed." Sad, sad story. Her suicide note to a reporter is just a list of educational credentials.

NYDN

"The wife of the Dallas-area jogger who was hacked to death with a machete committed suicide at the couple’s suburban home Sunday, police said.

Police found Patti Stevens, 54, dead of a suspected suicide in the Sunnyvale house she shared with her husband Dave Stevens around 2:30 p.m., according to the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department.

Police said former Texas A&M football player Thomas Johnson, 21, killed Stevens, who had been married to Patti for 25 years, on White Rock Creek Trail during his morning run on Oct. 12.

Patti Stevens was struggling to eat, sleep or think clearly a week after her husband’s death, she told The Dallas Morning News at the time.

“Dave was the love of my life and I’m lost without him,” she said. “People need to know that this was a wonderful person going out and doing what he loved to do.”

Officers found her in the garage of the Brazos Lane home a week later, and police believe she died from carbon monoxide poisoning, neighbors told the Morning News.

Her late husband’s former colleagues at General Electric had alerted police to their concern for Stevens, a physical therapist, after she didn’t answer phone calls Saturday and Sunday. County medical examiners didn’t release an official cause of death on Monday, KDFW-TV reported.

Johnson, the onetime freshman receiver standout who dropped out of school in 2012, admitted to murdering Stevens’ 53-year-old husband, according to investigators. He’s charged with murder and incarcerated in Dallas County jail on a $500,000 bond, county inmate records show. Friends and family have said Johnson is a schizophrenic and had become delusional and resistant to help, according to the Morning News.

Patti and Dave Stevens met on their graduation day at Michigan State University and moved to Dallas together in 1989. Opinion writer Mike Hashimoto called Patti Stevens' death “stunning news" and "heartbreaking beyond belief” on Monday.

“Even with as hard a shell as this business can put on a person, I can't imagine a sadder story than the widow of a random murder victim taking her own life,” Hashimoto wrote in the editorial."

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Former A&M football player with schizophrenia kills stranger with machete