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Gene Kennedy Reporting Her husband allegedly murdered her in a hit-and-run. Today, Patricia Rothermich was laid to rest.
The pews at St. Mark's Episcopal Church were filled with friends and family who came to remember her.
Rothermich was well-liked and known to many people in this community. She spent 30 years with Child Protective Services and taught at the University of Utah School for Social Work.
During the funeral there was a lot of talk about her life's work and not much about life at home. "Pat didn't look happy. She never said anything but she didn't look happy," Rothermich's neighbor Flo Carlston said.
Carlston and other neighbors say she never talked about any problems in her marriage to Sherman Lynch. "She wasn't the kind. She talked about cheerful things and always had a happy demeanor," recalled Dale Larson, also one of her neighbors.
"I think she thought she could save her marriage," Carlston said. "I really do."
Lynch was arrested Monday for allegedly ramming his white truck into her while she was walking alone on East Haven Lane in Holladay. But she didn't always walk alone.
"And they always held hands. They did. But I hadn't seen him walk with her for quite some time," Carlston said.
In today's service not a word was spoken about Sherman Lynch. His son, Patricia's stepson, returned from Iraq for the funeral but had no comment for the news cameras and certainly no comment about a woman claiming to be his father's girlfriend. This girlfriend helped sheriff's deputies crack the case.
Before today's funeral, KSL News spoke with the woman who's building a house next to the Rothermich home in Holladay. She didn't want to be identified, but says she was the first person on the scene after Lynch allegedly ran down his wife.
The soon-to-be next-door neighbor says she's talked with other neighbors who never saw or heard that Lynch had a girlfriend.
"I'm still having a difficult time at this time. I didn't know that happened in our neighborhood," Larson said. "I felt terrible about her demise."
A string of domestic violence cases in Utah have recently risen to the level of news stories, and October gets billing as "Domestic Violence Awareness month." With that in mind, Sandy City and its police department are working to inform residents about the vicious cycle of domestic violence.
The city council passed a resolution that aims to get the community involved.
Bryant Anderson, the Sandy City Council Chairman, said, "We encourage all Sandy City residents to take a stand against domestic violence in their personal relationships and in their community."
Volunteers tied ribbons to show their opposition to domestic violence. Each of the 800 ribbons represents a case of domestic violence in Sandy in the past year.
