MARYSVILLE — A Marysville woman remained jailed this week pending charges of killing her longtime husband by running over him with her car.
Diane Kay Thompson, 63, is accused of second-degree murder in the death of David Alfred Thompson, 64. The couple had been married 45 years, and they had five daughters together.
In domestic violence court records from 2018, both sides said their relationship had deteriorated over the past decade. The wife alleged a long history of abuse. The husband — as well as friends and family writing on his behalf — denied physically hurting her, but acknowledged both parties had a substance abuse problem, with excessive drinking and cannabis use on an almost daily basis.
Their relationship had become “very toxic,” he wrote.
“We have not shared the same bedroom for some time and essentially try to avoid each other as much as possible,” David Thompson wrote.
Around the same time, he filed for a divorce, then withdrew the case a few months later.
The police report states David Thompson was intoxicated and arguing with Diane around 6 p.m. Sept. 4, “as they often do.” At some point, another family member heard them leave the house in the 1500 block of 140th Street NE, still arguing. She looked outside to see the wife leaving in a gray Hyundai.
David Thompson was down on the gravel, not moving.
The family member called police. David Thompson appeared to have been hit by a car. He died at the scene. The cause of death was still under investigation as of Friday, according to the Snohomish County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Sheriff’s deputies found the wife at her mother’s home. The front end of her car had damage that looked consistent with hitting a person, wrote Snohomish County sheriff’s detective David Fontenot. After being advised of her rights, she spoke with deputies, according to the police report.
“She acknowledged ‘running over something,’ but denied knowing it was her husband, who was near the front of the vehicle at some point but ‘disappeared’ just before she ran over something and left the residence,” the detective wrote.
Sheriff’s deputies were seeking a warrant for home security footage that apparently captured the incident. According to a witness who watched the footage and alerted police to the evidence, there was “no way” the wife had not seen David Thompson getting hit.
An Everett District Court judge pro tem, Valerie Bouffiou, set bail at $250,000. Two days later, Judge Anthony Howard reduced it to $200,000. A defense attorney is seeking to reduce bail further, and a hearing has been set for Tuesday.
Diane Thompson has no known criminal history. The police report notes David Thompson had at least three past arrests for domestic violence assault, in 1998, 2002 and 2018, as well as an active no-contact order with another Thompson.
The Thompsons had wed in Marysville in 1975.
The wife petitioned for a protection order in May 2018.
“I have been afraid so many times in the last 5 years since he quit working and started drinking heavily that there are to many to list, because he drinks every day & scares me,” she wrote. “I sit in the bedroom daily because of his drinking. I am afraid 24/7.”
David Thompson responded that her most recent domestic violence allegation against him had been dismissed, and he maintained in four incidents where she accused him of abuse, she had actually been so impaired she fell and hurt herself. By the time he submitted his rebuttal, he had also signed divorce paperwork in Superior Court.
“It has become apparent things cannot continue as they are and we need to go our separate ways,” the husband wrote.
The husband withdrew the divorce petition in late 2018, writing that they had “reconciled our relationship and no longer want to move forward with a divorce.”
Caleb Hutton: 425-339-3454; chutton@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @snocaleb.
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