Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
ORANGEVILLE, Emery County — Police are remaining silent about the weekend death of an Orangville woman and the hospitalization of her husband, who suffered a gunshot wound.
Neighbors identified the couple as Kristi Price Maxwell, 47, and her husband, Richard Maxwell.
Deputies found Kristi Maxwell dead in her home Sunday when they responded to a call for a welfare check. A man with a gunshot wound to his torso was taken to a hospital.
That's all the information released from the Emery County Attorney's Office Monday. The release came with a statement from the Emery County Sheriff's Office instructing the media not to contact them with additional questions or requests for more information.
Investigators have not released any information about what caused Kristi Maxwell's death or about the medical condition of her husband.
Both the sheriff's office and the county attorney's office have declined to release the time or address of the incident, whether there is a criminal investigation surrounding the death, if they believe any other individuals were involved in the incident or the circumstances that led up to the woman's death and the man being shot.
Calls to the sheriff and county attorney were not returned.
Amanda Cox, a neighbor who lives across the street from the Maxwell family on the 400 block of North Canyon View, said she heard shouting about 9:30 p.m. Sunday and stepped outside her home to find out what was happening.
Police arrived a few minutes later and Cox said she went back into her home. A little while later she said she saw police surround the house and check a neighbor's property.
"We just stayed inside and watched," Cox said.
She said she heard an officer say they were looking for a man with a gun.
Around 11:45 p.m. officers kicked in the door to the Maxwell home, Cox said. An ambulance came a few minutes later and transported someone to the hospital.
"The sheriff's (deputies) were really composed during all of that and kept it pretty quiet. I was very impressed with how they handled it," Cox said.
Jenny Winger, another neighbor who lives across the street, said she received a text message from Cox asking what was happening. She and her husband looked outside and saw police around the house at 10:30 p.m. She also saw deputies searching the area behind the Maxwell house.
Winger said she heard deputies speaking through a megaphone to someone in the house before storming the porch and going inside.
Kristi Maxwell was remembered by friends Thursday as generous and friendly, quick to give a hug or a smile.
"I feel like a light has been taken out of our community with the loss of Kristi," said Tiffani Baker, a close friend. "She was a light in this world, and that's really the best compliment I could give her."
Baker met Kristi Maxwell when they were classmates at San Rafael Junior High in Ferron.
"She always had a smile," Baker said. "Even when she didn't feel good, which was a lot recently, she still had that smile and gave the best hugs in the world."
Baker said Maxwell moved to Orangeville about five years ago and was living with her husband, who went by "Max."
Kristi Maxwell was known for the hundreds of wedding dresses she had in her basement left over from her bridal shop in Colorado. She donated many of the dresses to girls in the community to use as prom dresses.
"All of them were so grateful for Kristi's generosity. They all went to prom looking like princesses," said Natalie Olsen, a friend and neighbor who lives down the street.
Olsen said she and Kristi Maxwell often helped each other with sewing projects and alterations. Olsen remembers one girl who cried with happiness when she was given a prom dress.
"Kristi said, 'I would give away every single one of my dresses for free if I could make every woman and every girl feel like she did,'" Olsen recalled. "She was just the sweetest person. She was so incredibly giving."
Neighbors and friends said Thursday there are a number of unanswered questions surrounding Kristi Maxwell's death.
"Devastation is a word I can say with the loss of her," Baker said. "We don't know really what happened."
Contributing: McKenzie Romero
