Edith “Dee Dee” Werner endured at least five beatings at her husband’s hands as the West Deer couple’s marriage crumbled, according to court documents. In a June 16 attack, Scott C. Werner, 46, gave his estranged wife reason to fear for her life, court records state: “He lunged at me and was choking me. … He also told me that if I try to leave, he will kill me,” Edith Werner wrote in a June 18 application for a protection-from-abuse order. Scott Werner was arraigned Friday on homicide charges in his wife’s slaying. West Deer police found her body about 2:30 p.m. Thursday in the basement of the Reaghard Drive home, where the couple had lived with their three children. She had been gagged, bound with tape and stabbed repeatedly, court documents say. The body was covered in a blue blanket, and a bloody knife was nearby. The Allegheny County Coroner’s Office said she died of stab wounds to the trunk. Allegheny County Police Superintendent Charles Moffatt said investigators have not determined a motive for the killing but have uncovered a “pattern of domestic abuse.” Edith Werner, 36, and her daughters Natalie, 8, and Brianna, 6, moved in with her mother, Mae Irvine, on June 18 because of “increasing domestic-abuse problems” with Scott Werner, according to an affidavit of probable cause filed to support the homicide charge. She also wrote that she saw her husband hiding behind a camper in her mother’s yard the day she moved out. The couple’s third child, Marisa, 10, continued to stay with her father. When police found the body, Scott Werner and Marisa were not around. Police, therefore, issued an “Amber Alert” for the missing child. A motorist, who police did not identify, heard of the alert and notified state police in Clarion, Clarion County, that he had seen Werner’s truck near Emlenton, Venango County. That’s where state police found Werner and Marisa, who was unharmed. “Please don’t tell my daughter what I did,” Werner told the troopers after a three-hour manhunt, according to the court documents. “I wish you guys would have let me kill myself. I didn’t want to be a father from a jail cell.” Edith Werner’s family became concerned when she made an early-morning trip to the couple’s home but failed to return to her mother’s house. An unnamed witness told police of seeing Edith Werner in a bank June 18, wearing an arm cast and sunglasses, the affidavit states. She told the witness that the injuries had come from her fifth beating at the hands of Scott Werner and that she was leaving. In her protection-from-abuse application, Edith Werner said her husband had sprained her thumb in the latest assault. Moffatt said investigators believe Scott Werner called his estranged wife at 6 a.m. Thursday. Investigators don’t know what was said, but Edith Werner left her mother’s house quickly, Moffatt said. Scott Werner withdrew $200 from the couple’s joint banking account at an ATM in Richland about 6:45 a.m., the affidavit states. Another witness told police that Scott Werner had been standing beside his truck in the driveway of the Reaghard Drive home about 9 a.m. By 9:15, he and the truck were gone. When police caught up with him, his daughter was seated beside him in the truck. “I was thinking about running, but I didn’t want my daughter to see the shootout,” Scott Werner told the troopers, according to the affidavit. He was arrested without incident. The couple’s stormy relationship included threats from Scott Werner to “cut the throats” of the couple’s three children, according to friends and witnesses interviewed by police. Still, residents along Reaghard Drive say they could not have imagined the horrors that took place Thursday. Neighbor Cindy Lyons said her daughter, Nicole, 10, and Marisa Werner were best friends. The two families had lived beside each other for nine years, and Lyons got to know the Werners at birthday parties. “She was a nice mother and a nice person,” Lyons said of Edith Werner. “There was no reason to think this would happen.” Herb Loper, 33, whose family owns the Leisure Bar and Restaurant in West Deer, said many people in the community knew the couple, particularly Edith Werner, who had grown up in West Deer and worked as a substitute bus driver for the Deer Lakes School District. The Irvines — including Edith, her mother, three brothers and two sisters — were known as a “good, local family,” Loper said. A 1985 Deer Lakes High School yearbook that Loper brought to work yesterday featured a senior picture of a blond, smiling “Dee Dee” Irvine. A caption lists her activities as junior/senior class play, float committee, volleyball, drama and dance committee. Her future plans were to attend the Bradford School of Business. Edith Werner’s family could not be reached for comment. Scott Werner’s family declined to comment. It was not clear how or when she met Scott Werner, a 1977 Penn Hills graduate who most recently worked at A.G. Mauro Co., a distributor of architectural doors in O’Hara. Loper said Scott Werner coached a soccer team that included Loper’s son and one of Werner’s daughters. A.G. Mauro President Jerry Miles declined to comment yesterday “out of respect to the Werner family.” Werner recently finished a 24-month probation term after a drunken-driving arrest in November 2001 in Indiana Township, court records show. “Everybody is surprised that something like this happened. It’s a shock,” Loper said. “Everybody here was just thankful that he didn’t hurt that little girl.” The funeral for Edith Werner will be at 11 a.m. Tuesday at Siwicki-Yanicko Funeral Home on McKrell Road, West Deer. Visitation will be from 7 to 9 p.m. Sunday and 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. Monday. The family asks that memorial contributions be made to the Edith K. Werner Memorial Fund, Laurel Savings Bank, P.O. Box 25, Russellton, PA 15076.

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