A 60-year-old Aurora man told police he shot and killed his wife to spare her from homelessness after losing his job and running out of money, according to arrest documents.
Phil Atchue dialed 911 on Sunday evening to inform police he shot his wife the previous morning, the arrest affidavit read. He told police he would wait for them on a bus bench near his apartment at 927 S. Ivory Circle and that he was not armed.
When Aurora police arrived at the apartment, they found his wife, 61-year-old Kay Page, lying in bed, bleeding from her head. Police saw a handgun on the kitchen table. Page was pronounced dead that evening, police said.
When police found Atchue, he agreed to talk to officers without an attorney present, police said.
The 60-year-old man told Aurora police he had been fired from his job at American Sign & Barricade Company in May. He said he didn’t tell his wife about his firing, continuing to get up and leave the house at the same time.
Atchue said Page worked at Lowe’s but that the couple — who had been together for 20 years — could not survive on one income.
Atchue could not bear the thought of Page living on the streets, he said, so he planned a murder-suicide, the arrest affidavit said.
Atchue told police he stopped paying the bills and waited until they ran out of money. The morning of July 5, Atchue said he shot his wife in the head twice after writing a bad check the day prior, the arrest affidavit said.
He had planned on killing himself afterward but could not bring himself to do it, the affidavit said.
Atchue told police he rarely fought with Page and that the couple got along well.
The man told police his motive was solely financial to spare Page from homelessness.
When an Aurora detective asked Atchue if there was a reason his first and only idea to solve his financial problems was to kill his wife, Atchue said “Nope,” and then laughed, the affidavit said.
“They had no money to stay, and they had no money to move, so Phil saw no other way out of the situation,” the arrest document read.
Atchue told police he suffered from depression and was suicidal. When he bought his gun five years ago, Page told him she thought he was going to kill himself, the affidavit read.
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Atchue told police Page told him not to kill himself, but that if he did, don’t take her with him, the affidavit read.
The arrest affidavit said the crime scene was consistent with Atchue’s testimony of what happened.
Atchue was arrested on charges of first-degree murder. Atchue remains in jail with no bond. His next court appearance is on Monday.
In a similar case, Englewood octogenarian Reginald Maclaren was convicted of murder in 2024 for the slaying of his wife and daughter.
Investigators accused Maclaren of killing Bethany and Ruth Jennifer with an ax, dismembering one of their bodies and putting them both in large trash cans in the living room of their home before calling police to report someone he knew had murdered them with a hammer.
Maclaren later told investigators he lost his job working with homeless people and was worried his wife and daughter would become homeless if he could not afford rent.
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Source:: News Denver – Denver Post
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