Wayne Leonetti choked Alice Bolen to death. Bolen was a regular guest on KATU's AM Northwest for more than 10 years.
CLARK COUNTY, Wash. — A Clark County judge denied Wayne Leonetti bail on Thursday after he made his first appearance in court following his arrest, accused of killing of his wife, Alice Bolen.
Deputies arrested Leonetti, 72, on Wednesday at the couple's home south of Ridgefield after he allegedly admitted to choking her to death.
Leonetti told a 911 dispatcher, "I need police here, I killed my wife," according to a probable cause affidavit. He also said that he "choked her," according to a deputy.
Erin Croft, a daughter of 80-year-old Bolen, told KATU after the hearing, that it is hard for her to describe her grief.
"I don't think there are words in our language to express what goes on when this sort of act of violence is enacted upon her family," Croft said.
Bolen was a regular guest on KATU's AM Northwest for more than 10 years. Croft said she leaves behind a legacy of love and service.
"I just wish everybody in the world had known her because she was an amazing example of what humans are supposed to be," she said.
Earlier this year, Bolen was diagnosed with breast cancer. According to a probable cause affidavit, Leonetti told deputies after his arrest that he had suicidal thoughts in the months leading up to the incident in connection to Bolen's cancer diagnosis.
Leonetti, who had been married to Bolen for less than two years, told investigators that "his therapist told him that (Bolen's) diagnosis combined with his previous spouse (of over 40 years) passing away in 2019 caused him to have a PTSD reaction," a deputy wrote in the affidavit.
Leonetti was "largely unable" to remember what led up to the Wednesday morning incident, the deputy wrote. "He did not recall details of the choking incident."
He did remember that after the incident "he sat down in a chair and 'couldn't believe it,'" according to the affidavit.
Relatives told deputies that Leonetti was "very controlling" over Bolen before the incident and that he had "insisted" on being with her when she visited family.
Two weeks prior to the incident, according to the affidavit, Leonetti was hospitalized after telling a relative that he was suicidal. The relative removed all of his firearms from the house afterward "at his request."
A judge will revisit Leonetti's bail at a hearing on Thursday, July 6.
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