A Page, N.D., couple e-mailed their daughter just hours before authorities found the husband and wife with fatal knife injuries in what was apparently a homicide-suicide, a Cass County Sheriff's Department investigator said Monday.
Sgt. Mitch Burris said it appears 84-year-old Phillip Warrey killed his 85-year-old wife, Lois, and then himself.
"All preliminary evidence would indicate that," Burris said. "We don't have the autopsy results back yet."
Burris said the Warreys sent an e-mail to their daughter at 8:16 p.m. Friday, prompting the daughter to ask a friend who lives in Page to check on the couple.
The friend didn't feel comfortable going to the house and called law enforcement, Burris said. He said he could not release the contents of the e-mail because of the ongoing investigation. The dispatch log indicates the daughter received an e-mail from her parents "that referenced them committing suicide."
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"Based on the e-mail, there was enough concern to go ahead and do the welfare check," Burris said. Deputies conducted the welfare check about 11 p.m. Friday and found Lois Warrey dead from a single knife wound to the chest, and Phillip Warrey suffering from multiple knife wounds to his chest.
Phillip Warrey was alive but unable to talk when deputies arrived, Burris said. He was taken to MeritCare Hospital in Fargo, where he died.
There were no signs of a struggle on the main floor of the house where the Warreys were found, Burris said.
The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead and the Herald are Forum Communications Co. newspapers.
