Athens, GA: Wife appears to be the killer, but more work needed in case of murdered Athens medical worker

Authorities believe a woman who committed suicide Thursday had killed her husband four days earlier, but more work needs to be done before they can close the case in the murder of Fermer C. “Butch” Dent, a longtime Athens medical worker.

Dent was a surgical physician assistant with Athens Orthopedic Clinic for 23 years.

Authorities continue to interview witnesses in connection with both Dent’s murder and his wife’s suicide, and investigators want at least one person to undergo a polygraph examination, Wilkes County Sheriff Mark A. Moore said this morning.

Moore would not say if Brenda Dent’s boyfriend — in whom she purportedly confided that she shot her husband to death on May 27 — was scheduled for a polygraph exam or remained a person of interest in Fermer Dent’s death.

“The best indications we have at this time was Mrs. Dent was the shooter in the death of her husband” at their home in Washington, Moore said.

“But we still have some more work to do before it’s a cleared case,” he said. “There are crime lab reports were are waiting on, as well as autopsy results, ballistic comparisons and a number of other reports.”

Brenda Dent’s body was found in a car across the street from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s Columbus regional office Thursday afternoon, shortly after her boyfriend told investigators she confessed to her husband’s murder.

Moore said that among other things, investigators are waiting for the results of tests to determine whether the gun with which Brenda Dent shot herself was the weapon used in Fermer Dent’s murder.

Brenda Dent was the person who reported she found her husband dead from a gunshot wound ton he evening of May 27.

The murder probe — the first in Wilkes County in at least a decade — quickly led investigators to Thomaston, where Brenda Dent’s boyfriend lives, Moore said.

The unidentified man and Brenda Dent were both scheduled to give statements and take polygraph tests at the GBI’s Columbus office, the sheriff said.

The boyfriend’s statement about Brenda Dent’s confessing to murdering her husband is just hearsay, which is why investigators need to finish collecting and examining evidence to corroborate his story, according to Moore.

“We want to make sure we’ve covered all aspects of the case and answer any questions that arise,” he said. “There may be some issues in this case we may never know because the two primary persons are dead.”

The investigation should be wrapped up within two weeks, according to Moore.

Anyone with information that could help should call the Wilkes County Sheriff’s Office at (706) 678-5515.