They were married for more than 60 years and found dead side by side in their South Carolina home Monday. Investigators say they think Dave Molter was giving his wife, Corrine, CPR when he collapsed next to her, CNN affiliate WSOC said.
Close friends told WSOC that Dave Molter, 84, was a constant companion to his wife, who they believed was in the advanced stages of Alzheimer’s disease.
When Corrine Molter, 83, would go for a walk outside their Lake Wylie home, her husband would reportedly trail her — but stay hidden — so she was never out of his sight. Neighbors told WSOC that Corrine Molter had wandered off before and they were afraid she might fall into a lake.
They were “just wonderful people,” Brandy Williams told WSOC. Williams had been stopping by three days a week since May to check on the couple. She’s the one who found them Monday after breaking down the door when no one answered the bell. “I’ve never met anybody like that in my life. I think they helped me more than I helped them. They helped my heart.”
Williams called the couple best friends and said they “had the kind of love you see in the movies, not the kind you see in real life.”
Neighbor Chris Porter said Dave Molter built the Lake Wylie house himself, before many of the other homes popped up in the quiet neighborhood.
“He was real proud of that house,” he said. “I’ve known them 30 years. They were wonderful people.”
“It’s almost fitting, I guess, that the two of them are going to be together forever,” Wray Moxley, a friend of the couple, told WSOC. “He really loved her. We all knew if something ever happened, he’d take care of her.”
The York County coroner told WSOC that no autopsies are planned because there was nothing suspicious about their deaths. The coroner also said no foul play is suspected.
The Molters leave behind a daughter, a son and siblings, WSOC said.
“I’m glad they’re together, and I know that he wouldn’t want it any other way,” Williams said.