[OH] Kettering Police Chief's Wife, Doris Thompson Shryock, Said-Suicide - 1974

On September 5th, 1974 Doris Thompson Shryock died by a gunshot wound to the head. Kettering Police Chief John Russel Shryock says she told him she was going to kill herself and that she has had "complete mental disorientation" since a car accident years prior to her death. One month after her death the chief sued the driver in that accident for $300,000.

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[U.S.] Too Many Said-Suicides of Law Enforcement Officer's wives, girlfriends, dates, and ex's 

IN THE NEWS:

POLICE CHIEFS WIFE CALLED SUICIDE VICTIM 
7 Sep 1974 Doris Shryock, wife of Kettering Police Chief John Shryock, was an apparent suicide victim Thursday. A spokesman for the Montgomery county coroner said that Mrs. Shryock, 43, died at 3:30 p.m. Thursday at Kettering Medical center. She was found shot in the head with a .22 caliber handgun at the family residence at 3 Chippendale Pl. A Kettering police spokesman said that Mrs. Shryock called her husband and told him that she was going to take her life. A nearby police crew was dispatched and had to break into the house. A spokesman said that Mrs. Shryock, the former Doris Thompson of West Alexandria, had been in ill health since an auto crash about 10 years ago. She had been under constant treatment since. Surviving in addition to her husband is Mrs. Shryock's daughter by a previous marriage, Linda Tanner. The Zimmerman funeral home at West Alexandria will handle private services. There will be no viewing. SHRYOCK, 48, has been Kettering's first and only police chief. He was appointed in 1955. The coroner's spokesman said a final ruling will be deferred until results of a toxology test are received.

MRS. SHRYOCK DIES IN KETTERING 
7 Sep 1974
Services for Doris Shryock, wife of Kettering Police Chief John R. Shryock, will be held privately on Sunday. Mrs. Shryock, 44, of 3 Chippendale Place, Kettering, died Thursday afternoon at Kettering Memorial Hospital. The family requested no visitation and no flowers. Zimmerman Funeral Home in West Alexandria is handling the arrangements. Survivors include her husband; a daughter, Linda, at home; and several step children.

SHRYOCK SUES OVER WIFE'S DEATH 
22 Oct 1974
Kettering police chief John R. Shryock filed suit yesterday against two men he alleged were responsible for a car accident in which his wife sustained injuries that later caused her suicide. The suit filed In Montgomery county common fleas Court said Shryock's wife, Doris J, was driving southbound on North Main Street when her car was hit in the rear by a station wagon driven by William Protos, of 72 E. Burton St. He said as a result of the accident on Oct, 28, 1972 Mrs. Shryock suffered back and neck injuries. And due to the accident, Mrs. Shryock "suffered such pain, suffering and shock, that it caused a complete mental disorientation, and as a result (Mrs. Shryock) took her life on Sept. 5, 1974," the suit alleges. The suit also named Nick Protos 519 of W. Norman Ave., as a defendent. The suit says he was the owner of the station wagon and a passenger in it at the time of the accident. The suit, filed by attorney Raymond A. White, asks for: $300,000 in damages.
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