Wife’s shooting believed to be accidental

Sheriff’s detectives now believe a confused 74-year-old Colbert man may have shot his wife to death accidentally.

They’re not sure, though, because Art R. Prichard’s vague account doesn’t square with physical evidence, and his wife, 72-year-old Loretta L. Prichard, died without being able to tell anyone what happened.

“What we have right now is a mystery,” said Capt. Bruce Mathews, head of the sheriff’s Investigations Division. “It is probably more likely an accident than a premeditated act.”

Mathews said an autopsy Tuesday contributed to that belief, but he declined to elaborate.

He said a forensic team found a .357-caliber Magnum revolver in the Prichards’ home on North Panorama Road, from which one round had been fired. The same shot that killed Loretta Prichard is believed to have blown off the tip of the middle finger of Art Prichard’s left hand, Mathews said.

The revolver has been sent to a Washington State Patrol crime lab to determine, among other things, whether it operates properly. Mathews said the gun was found in a different part of the home from where the shooting occurred. Investigators still have no explanation for that.

Prichard told The Spokesman-Review that he and his wife, who used a wheelchair, were injured about 5 a.m. Monday while he was pushing her from the kitchen to the living room after an early breakfast. He said he thought the wheelchair ran over something that exploded.

“I was pushing her and, all of a sudden, BAM! It shot up in the air,” Prichard said. “Whatever it was, it shot up in the air.”

His wife died about 2:30 a.m. Tuesday at Deaconess Medical Center of a gunshot wound to the head.

Mathews said Prichard’s account of the shooting to the newspaper was “pretty consistent with what he told the detectives.” Prichard was unable to remember things such as where he and his wife had worked, his wife’s maiden name or why she used the wheelchair.

Officers arrested Prichard on suspicion of third-degree domestic assault Monday morning but asked a District Court commissioner to dismiss the charge and release Prichard from jail Tuesday morning.

Mathews said detectives want more information about Prichard’s mental condition and the shooting evidence before deciding whether to pursue charges.

He said the Prichards’ two adult children told detectives they are confident their father would not have harmed their mother deliberately. Mathews said Art Prichard apparently had no history of violence.

Loretta Prichard is believed to have been in poor health, but Mathews said the autopsy indicates she didn’t shoot herself and there was no evidence to suggest a “mercy” killing.