Columbus Dispatch: SATURDAY, March 4, 1989
By Bruce Cadwallader - Dispatch Police Reporter
Jean Dodds told neighbors yesterday that she feared for her life when she took her husband's rifle to their house and asked them to keep it, Columbus police said.
Several hours later, Lafe Dodds chased her outside their home at 497 Northridge Rd., killed her with a shotgun and then used the gun to take his own life, police said.
Jean Dodds, 50, and her husband, 57, were dead when police arrived at 12:45 p.m.
HER BODY, WITH two gunshot wounds, was on the front lawn. That of Mr. Dodds, a former city schools mathematics teacher, was on the back porch with a head wound.
The 30-year residents of Northridge Road lived in a red, one-story frame house surrounded by a stockade fence.
Four of their children, the youngest reportedly in college, had moved out. A daughter died shortly after birth, and a son was killed several years ago in a traffic accident, neighbors said.
Northridge is a quiet street between Indianola Avenue and N. High Street and rarely requires the services of police, neighbors said.
Some patrol officers and homicide detectives had to ask directions to the neighborhood.
''I can't believe it,'' milling residents said repeatedly after police arrived.
''He's had some medical problems that he stated were getting the best of him,'' Lt. Ralph Casto said of Mr. Dodds. ''For whatever reason, he decided to kill his wife and then himself.''
NEIGHBORS SAID Mr. Dodds' eyesight was deteriorating, and he had undergone eye surgery last summer.
Witnesses told police Mr. Dodds shot his wife near the rear of the house and chased her to the front yard, where she collapsed. He stood over her and fired a second shot into her body, they said.
Mr. Dodds returned to the rear porch, where he took his own life, Casto said.
Mr. Dodds retired in May 1986 after teaching for 30 years at West, Whetstone and Northland high schools.
By Bruce Cadwallader - Dispatch Police Reporter
Jean Dodds told neighbors yesterday that she feared for her life when she took her husband's rifle to their house and asked them to keep it, Columbus police said.
Several hours later, Lafe Dodds chased her outside their home at 497 Northridge Rd., killed her with a shotgun and then used the gun to take his own life, police said.
Jean Dodds, 50, and her husband, 57, were dead when police arrived at 12:45 p.m.
HER BODY, WITH two gunshot wounds, was on the front lawn. That of Mr. Dodds, a former city schools mathematics teacher, was on the back porch with a head wound.
The 30-year residents of Northridge Road lived in a red, one-story frame house surrounded by a stockade fence.
Four of their children, the youngest reportedly in college, had moved out. A daughter died shortly after birth, and a son was killed several years ago in a traffic accident, neighbors said.
Northridge is a quiet street between Indianola Avenue and N. High Street and rarely requires the services of police, neighbors said.
Some patrol officers and homicide detectives had to ask directions to the neighborhood.
''I can't believe it,'' milling residents said repeatedly after police arrived.
''He's had some medical problems that he stated were getting the best of him,'' Lt. Ralph Casto said of Mr. Dodds. ''For whatever reason, he decided to kill his wife and then himself.''
NEIGHBORS SAID Mr. Dodds' eyesight was deteriorating, and he had undergone eye surgery last summer.
Witnesses told police Mr. Dodds shot his wife near the rear of the house and chased her to the front yard, where she collapsed. He stood over her and fired a second shot into her body, they said.
Mr. Dodds returned to the rear porch, where he took his own life, Casto said.
Mr. Dodds retired in May 1986 after teaching for 30 years at West, Whetstone and Northland high schools.
Columbus Dispatch: SATURDAY, March 4, 1989
By Bruce Cadwallader - Dispatch Police Reporter
Jean Dodds told neighbors yesterday that she feared for her life when she took her husband's rifle to their house and asked them to keep it, Columbus police said.
Several hours later, Lafe Dodds chased her outside their home at 497 Northridge Rd., killed her with a shotgun and then used the gun to take his own life, police said.
Jean Dodds, 50, and her husband, 57, were dead when police arrived at 12:45 p.m.
HER BODY, WITH two gunshot wounds, was on the front lawn. That of Mr. Dodds, a former city schools mathematics teacher, was on the back porch with a head wound.
The 30-year residents of Northridge Road lived in a red, one-story frame house surrounded by a stockade fence.
Four of their children, the youngest reportedly in college, had moved out. A daughter died shortly after birth, and a son was killed several years ago in a traffic accident, neighbors said.
Northridge is a quiet street between Indianola Avenue and N. High Street and rarely requires the services of police, neighbors said.
Some patrol officers and homicide detectives had to ask directions to the neighborhood.
''I can't believe it,'' milling residents said repeatedly after police arrived.
''He's had some medical problems that he stated were getting the best of him,'' Lt. Ralph Casto said of Mr. Dodds. ''For whatever reason, he decided to kill his wife and then himself.''
NEIGHBORS SAID Mr. Dodds' eyesight was deteriorating, and he had undergone eye surgery last summer.
Witnesses told police Mr. Dodds shot his wife near the rear of the house and chased her to the front yard, where she collapsed. He stood over her and fired a second shot into her body, they said.
Mr. Dodds returned to the rear porch, where he took his own life, Casto said.
Mr. Dodds retired in May 1986 after teaching for 30 years at West, Whetstone and Northland high schools.
By Bruce Cadwallader - Dispatch Police Reporter
Jean Dodds told neighbors yesterday that she feared for her life when she took her husband's rifle to their house and asked them to keep it, Columbus police said.
Several hours later, Lafe Dodds chased her outside their home at 497 Northridge Rd., killed her with a shotgun and then used the gun to take his own life, police said.
Jean Dodds, 50, and her husband, 57, were dead when police arrived at 12:45 p.m.
HER BODY, WITH two gunshot wounds, was on the front lawn. That of Mr. Dodds, a former city schools mathematics teacher, was on the back porch with a head wound.
The 30-year residents of Northridge Road lived in a red, one-story frame house surrounded by a stockade fence.
Four of their children, the youngest reportedly in college, had moved out. A daughter died shortly after birth, and a son was killed several years ago in a traffic accident, neighbors said.
Northridge is a quiet street between Indianola Avenue and N. High Street and rarely requires the services of police, neighbors said.
Some patrol officers and homicide detectives had to ask directions to the neighborhood.
''I can't believe it,'' milling residents said repeatedly after police arrived.
''He's had some medical problems that he stated were getting the best of him,'' Lt. Ralph Casto said of Mr. Dodds. ''For whatever reason, he decided to kill his wife and then himself.''
NEIGHBORS SAID Mr. Dodds' eyesight was deteriorating, and he had undergone eye surgery last summer.
Witnesses told police Mr. Dodds shot his wife near the rear of the house and chased her to the front yard, where she collapsed. He stood over her and fired a second shot into her body, they said.
Mr. Dodds returned to the rear porch, where he took his own life, Casto said.
Mr. Dodds retired in May 1986 after teaching for 30 years at West, Whetstone and Northland high schools.
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