Sandy, UT: Former dispatcher killed by boyfriend

Suicide » The man then turned the gun on himself.
By Lindsay Whitehurst
The Salt Lake Tribune
Updated: 11/21/2009 07:48:28 PM MST

A Sandy man killed his girlfriend, then turned the shotgun on himself following a police standoff in West Jordan early Saturday morning, officers said.
The 43-year-old man called a friend and confessed to shooting Michelle Welch, 54, once with a shotgun at her house on the 6800 block of Triumph Lane (1050 West), said West Jordan police Sgt. Drew Sanders. He also threatened to kill himself.
The man's friend called police about 2:50 a.m. When officers arrived, he barricaded himself inside the house with the gun. Police reached him on the phone and he told negotiators he had shot her accidently, Sanders said. As the morning wore on, he stopped talking to police and officers heard him shoot himself. Police believe he had been drinking alcohol.
Welch was a 911 dispatcher for the Salt Lake City fire department until her retirement this summer, said friend and dispatch supervisor Linda Christensen.
"She was a good person and she didn't deserve this," Christensen said. "She was generous to a fault, and that's what did her in."
She'd been with her boyfriend on and off for about six years, she said. Police hadn't released his name, pending notification of relatives.
The boyfriend had a temper, Christensen said. Once, she said, she asked why she didn't break up with him. Welch, Christensen said, replied: "Well, I'm a little afraid of him."
On occasions when she did try to end the relationship, they fought and the
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police ended up at the house, she said. She described him as a heavy drinker who had difficulty finding steady employment.
"I think we all worried about her when we saw the police outside, but she'd say, 'Oh, no, he didn't hurt me,'" she said. "She'd say things like, 'Well I'm trying to get him gone' or 'Where else would he go? ' ... She'd worry about him."
As a dispatcher for 30 years, mainly on the night shift, Welch was particularly good at talking callers through psychiatric problems. Welch was also a caretaker among her friends. After Christensen had a heart attack, it was Welch who stopped by with gifts.
"Anybody that had problems at home, she'd always take care of them," she said. "She'd take them in, give them a room to stay in."
Welch had never been married. She built her home herself after picking a lot on Triumph Lane, a gated street of new, well-kept homes. She had four dogs, two toy fox terriers and two Chinese crested.
The dogs Saturday were being taken care of by friends, including Christensen, who took in the two Chinese crested. They skittered about late Saturday morning in similar blue and pink dog shirts to protect their sensitive, hairless skin. Another friend took the terriers.
Christensen knew something was wrong Saturday morning when she saw the dogs running loose.
"I thought, something's not right ... because they were her life," she said. "She was a kind, generous woman, and always took in strays, which is why she had [him]."
Next-door neighbor Cheryn McNicol said he was the first person to talk to her after she moved into the neighborhood.
"He seemed like a bit of an oddball," she said, but friendly, and helpful with projects at her house. "You just can't ever tell what people are like."