First Tacoma Homicide of 2019: Mary Hoffer

It couldn't go on like this. Mary Hoffer knew that the fights with her boyfriend had to stop. It was constant. Neighbors in the apartment building in the 800 block of South 8th Street had become used to the yelling, the screams, the things breaking. It had to stop. She told her coworkers that she would meet up with them on January 4th, Friday night after she sat down and had a civilized talk with her 37-year-old boyfriend.

Mary never showed Friday night. She didn't answer phone calls. She wasn't online. When she didn't answer her door on Saturday, her coworkers called the police. Police arrived and found Mary dead. She had been beaten and strangled becoming the first Tacoma homicide this year.  They also found her boyfriend dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The two of them were from Warsaw, Indiana. Mary was known to be a generous person. In 2015 she organized a GoFundMe for someone who had lost everything. My thoughts go out to her family and to all who knew this couple. Death has a way of rippling through the lives of those still living. It's impossible to estimate the impact someone makes until they are gone.

As always the comments section is reserved for those who knew Mary who might want to share any thoughts or memories of her. - Jack