UTAH COUNTY --The widow of Sgt. Cory Wride faces an uncertain financial future.
Sgt. Wride was killed while on duty in Utah County last January in what other officers have described as an "ambush." The suspect who took Wride's life died in a shootout with police later that day.
In the weeks since, Nanette Wride has been sifting through a myriad of emotions and a mountain of paperwork. She's still not sure exactly what her financial resources will be going forward, but she's learning the situation is far more challenging than she, or Cory, had imagined.
"I'm not positive what I'm going to have once everything comes in," she said. "My financial guy sat down with me, and I will be getting probably 60 percent of what Cory and I would have made had he been alive, and that's with both of us working. So I really don't have the option of staying home."
Wride had worked for the Utah County Sheriff's Office for 19 years and three months at the time of his death. Had he died at the 20 year mark or beyond, he would have been eligible for retirement under the state's guidelines, and Nanette would have received 65 percent of his income. Because of the nine month difference, she gets only 37 percent.
Four weeks after her husband's death, Nanette said she also returned to work full time because she couldn't afford the $1,400 a month bill to continue Cory's insurance package.
Representative Paul Ray, R-District 13, is looking into Utah State Retirement Systems to see if adjustments might me made, perhaps retroactively, to help Nanette Wride and others in her situation.
Meanwhile, Nanette urges officers and their families to find extra insurance beyond what the state provides.
