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Police officers responding to a chilling call from a man claiming to have shot his wife were unprepared for the gruesome scene they encountered. Dave Meyer, aged 69 at the time of the crime, rang 999 from his home in Roy, Utah on January 21, 2023, informing the operator that he had shot his 62-year-old wife, Suzanne Meyer, in the head. Upon arrival, officers discovered Suzanne lying face-down on the bed, her feet touching the floor as though she had been kneeling. She had succumbed to a single gunshot wound, according to the Real Crime Psychology podcast , and a potent smell of decomposition filled the room. Attempting to justify his four-day delay in contacting the police, Meyer stated: "I guess I was in shock. I sat in my house and just tried to not focus on what I'd done." During a surprisingly composed police interview, Meyer detailed how his typically fit and healthy wife had been left in constant agony after being hit by a cyclist while jogging in Hawaii. The incident, Meyer claimed, "just totally destroyed her". He described her as "a very strong woman in the gym all her life" who "ran, lifted every day, [she kept] in shape". However, following the accident, surgeons had to insert steel pins into her spine to mend the damage – leaving her unable to stand or sit comfortably and reliant on continuous medication for pain relief. Meyer alleged that Suzanne had repeatedly implored him to end her life. He claimed he could no longer bear to see his wife in such agony, and while giving her a back rub, he reached for a 9mm pistol with his other hand and shot her in the head. "I couldn't stand to see her suffer any more," he confessed to the police. However, testimonies from two other witnesses painted a much darker picture. Suzanne's sister Sandy vehemently denied Meyer's claims: "My sister did not want to die. There's no way in hell. This is a bodybuilder who has made plans, she still has Amazon packages coming. "My mum's dying, she wouldn't let me do it by myself." Sandy accused Meyer of forcing Suzanne into sexual acts with other men on camera and threatening her when she resisted his commands. She added that while Suzanne had complained of "horrible" pain, she never voiced any suicidal intentions. The evidence that led detectives to believe that Meyer's actions were not driven by compassion for his suffering wife, but rather a far more sinister motive, came from a client at the gym where he worked. It was revealed that Meyer had been engaging in a sexual relationship with this woman over several months. The witness, whose identity remains undisclosed, informed the police that Meyer had a tumultuous relationship with his wife and that Suzanne would "try to get him to hit her so she could call the cops on him". More shockingly, the woman revealed that Meyer had been contemplating murdering his wife for some time. She added: "A couple of weeks ago, he told me that he almost shot her." In a different conversation, the witness claimed, Meyer had informed her that Suzanne would be "gone soon". Faced with such damning evidence, Dave Meyer agreed to a plea deal in March 2023, admitting guilt to murder in return for several other charges being dropped. Finally, on May 10, 2024, at the second district court in Ogden, Utah, Judge Joseph Bean sentenced Meyer to 15 years to life imprisonment. He is currently serving his sentence at the Utah State Prison.
