Title	Mrs.
Last Name	Dyer
First Name	(Charles)
Middle Name
Maiden Name	Phair
Nick Name
Place of Birth
Date of Birth
Place of Death	Dexter, ME
Date of Death	1926-01-22
Publication	The Eastern Gazette 1-28-1926, p.1
Obituary	A DOUBLE TRAGEDY Mrs. Chas. Dyer Kills Her Nine-year old Son and Hangs Herself This town was greatly shocked by the horrible tragedy, which occurred early Friday afternoon, when Mrs. Charles W. Dyer of High street took the life of her nine-year-old son, Cecil, and afterward committed suicide by hanging, the murder and suicide occurring as the result of mental de- rangement from which the woman had been a sufferer for several months. Chairman Albert L. Davis, of the board of selectmen, notified Dr. O. R. Emerson of Newport, medical examiner for Western Penobscot county, but as the tragedy was plainly one of murder and suicide, no additional investigation was made. Shocking and pitiful in the extreme was the scene that greeted the eyes of Selectman Davis and Dr. Frank E. Burgess when they were summoned to the Dyer home Friday afternoon by Mrs. Turner, who discovered the Dyer woman hanging from a beam in the shed when she called to deliver a pair of trousers which she had fashioned for little Cecil. Mrs. Dyer was suspended by a rope from a beam in the shed. She had first fashioned a noose with a square knot in the rope and placed it twice around her neck. Then standing in a chair she had kicked the chair from beneath her feet. Cutting down the body it was removed to the house and it was not until they visited the sitting room that murder was revealed. Lying on the floor of the sitting room, his body on a blanket, was the silent form of little Cecil. There were no signs of a struggle and it was apparent that the insane mother had overpowered her little boy and quickly taken his life. The boy, for some reason, had remained home from the Spring street school and it is the theory of those who investigated the tragedy that the mother had premeditated the taking of her own and the boy's life early in the morning and had kept the little chap from going to school. Neighbors saw the boy sitting in a window of his home late in the forenoon. The condition of the husband and father, a foundryman at the Fay & Scott shops, was pitiful in the extreme when the news of the terrible tragedy in his home was broken to him. He was able, however, to tell the selectmen that his wife had been subject to periods of mental derangement and had been suffering from such a spell during the past few days. Mr. and Mrs. Dyer, last year, lived on the Levenseller & Hasty farm on the Dover road and more recently Mrs. Dyer has been employed at the Ellis Inn in this town, until ill health compelled her to give up the work. Mrs. Dyer's maiden name was Phair, and her parents Mr. and Mrs. Alec Phair, reside in Presque Isle. A sister, Mrs. Ralph Joy, lives in Hampden Highlands. Funeral services were held Monday forenoon at the home, Rev. D. P. Pelley officiating.