He fatally stabbed his wife’s ex-roommate in Fife when she came to get her things, charges say

A man accused of fatally stabbing his wife’s former roommate Sunday in Fife has been charged with second-degree murder.

Pierce County prosecutors filed the charge against 54-year-old Daniel Duane Hatch on Wednesday in the death of 42-year-old Sarah Mercer. Hatch pleaded not guilty at arraignment in Superior Court, and bail was set at $1 million.

Charging papers give this account:

Hatch’s wife called police to report an argument and that Hatch had stabbed Mercer.

Officers arrived at the home in the 4000 block of 61st Avenue East shortly after 2 p.m. and found Mercer inside the front door with a stab wound to her chest. She died at the scene.

A military knife with about a 7-inch blade was on the floor nearby.

Hatch’s wife told officers that Mercer had lived in the home but moved out after the women had disputes, including about rent.

They made arrangements for Mercer to pick up her belongings and Hatch’s wife asked him to be there when Mercer came.

Hatch answered the door when Mercer arrived, and his wife said she heard a scuffle and shouting. She saw Hatch and Mercer in a physical altercation and heard Hatch say, “Get off me,” several times.

Then, the wife said, she saw Mercer on the floor with Hatch standing next to her.

“Daniel Hatch told officers that he heard a knock at the door and went to answer it,” deputy prosecutor Jared Ausserer wrote in the declaration for determination of probable cause. “He told officers that he stabbed Mercer and that she attacked him.”

Hatch was taken into custody, and the court found probable cause Monday to hold him in jail while prosecutors made a charging decision.

Investigators determined Mercer had a bruise shaped like four fingers on her right bicep, a stab wound to her chest and a stab wound to her left buttock.

Hatch’s wife told investigators Mercer had threatened her before, and court records show Mercer sought a protection order against the wife last month.

Mercer wrote in her petition that she leased the house with the wife, who changed the locks while Mercer was away. Mercer also said the wife had screamed and called police to report breaking and entering when Mercer tried to move out, pushed Mercer’s daughter and vandalized a tire on Mercer’s vehicle.

The court denied an interim protection order but set a hearing to consider a longer-term one. That hearing was supposed to happen Wednesday.

Mercer’s parents, Steve and Linda Mercer, told The News Tribune that their daughter was gentle and that it was unthinkable that she would attack anyone.

Steve Mercer described her as an “extrovert on steroids.”

She had a job selling home health services earlier this year, and a couple weeks ago was hired for a different sales jobs, the family said.

Faith and being involved in church was very important to her, and she spent six months as a Christian missionary in Costa Rica after high school, they added.

Mercer and her 16-year-old daughter lived with Mercer’s parents in Northeast Tacoma until late last year, when mother and daughter moved to an apartment in Fife and then earlier this year into the home with Hatch’s wife.

“They were ecstatic,” Steve Mercer said. “They loved that house.”

This story was originally published October 3, 2018 at 11:37 AM.