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BEAVER — A Tennessee woman charged with murdering her husband in a Beaver motel room made her first court appearance Monday.
Dorothy Louise Searcy, 44, was charged with murder, a first-degree felony, in 5th District Court on Friday after police say she stabbed her husband during a domestic dispute last Wednesday.
Searcy and her husband were "drifters" from Tennessee who had been in Beaver for about a week after their car broke down, Beaver County Sheriff Cameron Noel said. Searcy's son and his wife were also with them. Police had received previous calls about the group, Noel said.
Deputies responded to a 911 call at the Country Inn Motel about 11:30 p.m. Wednesday after a caller reported that Reginald Searcy, 45, had been accidentally stabbed.
Deputies found Reginald Searcy bleeding profusely and transported him to nearby Beaver Valley Hospital, where he died.
All four people in the motel room had been drinking, Noel said, and as deputies interviewed them, their accounts "didn't add up."
"(Dorothy Searcy) first stated that it was an accident, that her husband came in and that they were horseplaying around and he slipped and fell on a knife," Noel said.
(Searcy) first stated that it was an accident, that her husband came in and that they were horseplaying around and he slipped and fell on a knife.
–Sheriff Cameron Noel
Investigators later determined Reginald Searcy had been stabbed in the chest with a steak knife during a dispute, Noel said.
"It was a domestic dispute because of alcohol consumption on everybody's part," said Noel, who said this level of violence is rare in the area.
The other two occupants in the room were arrested for investigation of intoxication and disorderly conduct, Noel said. They later posted bail.
