Police: Elderly man died trying to give CPR to wife

LAKE WYLIE, S.C. — An elderly couple was found dead in their home on Lake Wylie Monday. Investigators said 84-year-old Dave Molter was trying to do CPR on his ailing wife when he collapsed and died next to her.

Dave and Corrine Molter had been together more than 60 years. Close friends said she was in the advanced stages of Alzheimer's disease. He waited on her hand and foot, and was never away from her.

Neighbors said when she would take a walk, he would follow her, but stay out of sight.

"She would walk down the street, and he would follow her in the car, but way back so she didn't know he was following," said neighbor Elke Hall.

In fact, Hall said everyone in the Lake Wylie neighborhood looked out for Corrine. She had wandered away before, and they worried she'd fall into the lake.

"I think that's what all neighbors should do, is look out for each other," she said.

Brandy Williams had been the caregiver for the couple since May. She stopped by three days a week to check on them. She found them dead Monday morning after kicking the door open when no one answered the bell.

She broke down, talking about losing a couple she called best friends.

"(They were) just wonderful people. I've never met anybody like that in my life," Williams said. "I think they helped me more than I helped them. They helped my heart."

Williams said Molter loved his wife in a way that made an impact on her. He often spoke of what he would do when her conditioned worsened, or he had to put her in a home.

"He told me he didn't know what was worse, watching someone he'd loved for so long die, or the silence if she wasn't there," Williams said. "They had the kind of love you see in the movies, not the kind you see in real life."

Neighbor Chris Porter said she walked through the woods to their home many times to check on them. They lived in a home on Squirrel Lane that Dave Molter had built there himself. It was there before most other homes in the neighborhood.

"He was real proud of that house," Porter said. "I've known them 30 years. They were wonderful people."

Dave Molter was a member of the Steele Creek Masonic Lodge. Friends there told Channel 9 that he brought his wife to meetings because he couldn't leave her.

Wray Moxley said their deaths together somehow seem right.

"It's almost fitting I guess that the two of them are going to be together forever," Moxley said. "He really loved her. We all knew if something ever happened, he'd take care of her."

Molter was with the masonic lodge since its beginning, and worked on the health and happiness committee, which kept track of births, illnesses, deaths, and any kind of important events in the lives of lodge members.

As a caregiver Williams had gotten to know the couple so well this summer, she refused to take on any other clients when she was asked to.

They made plans to spend Thanksgiving together. To her the loss is devastating, but she finds joy in one thing.

"I'm glad they're together, and I know that he wouldn't want it any other way," she said.

The couple has a daughter who lives in Hawaii, a son in North Carolina, and siblings in Florida and Maryland. They were expected to arrive late Tuesday.

York County Coroner Sabrina Gast told Channel 9 that no autopsies are planned because there was nothing suspicious at the house, and no foul play is suspected.

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