Libby Police seek information on reportedly suicidal couple

Libby Police seek information about a Washington couple who recently stayed in a Libby motel and had previously expressed a desire to commit suicide together.

Carol Jean Bruce, 71, and Bruce Henry Hulsman, 79, of Aberdeen, Washington “told me in the past that they want what they call ‘a dignified death,’” their daughter Jodi Griswold said from Spokane, Washington in an Aug. 30 phone interview. “Apparently it’s part of their love story.”

Griswold contacted Aberdeen police after the couple posted a suicidal message to Facebook on June 29. Authorities tracked the couple to the Caboose Motel in Libby, where Libby Police Sgt. Darren Short checked in with the couple on Aug. 8.

Short reported that they appeared “lucid and in good health” and that there was “not enough information to justify an involuntary mental evaluation.”

When Griswold spoke with her mother on the phone while she was with Libby police, Griswold recalled asking her, “Where are you going now?”

“You know where we’re going,” her mother replied. She also told her daughter she had sent her a letter.

Griswold said she received the letter Aug. 22. She said her parents wrote they had found a place “deep in the woods of Montana to hide away and die” and “It will likely be several years before we are found.”

Griswold said her parents’ poor health, and especially her mom’s bad hip, make it unlikely they could hike very far.

According to police, there has been no activity in the couple’s bank accounts or credit cards since Aug. 15. Police say the couple stayed at the Caboose Motel from Aug. 2 until Aug. 20.

Libby Police Chief Scott Kessel, who has been working the case with Aberdeen Police Department and Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office, said Wednesday no search is underway.

“They are adults, here of their own free will,” he said. “To search for them, we’d need a starting point and right now all we know is that they are no longer at the Caboose motel.”

“At this point, no one expects a really great outcome,” Griswold said. “I just want all the hikers and hunters out there to know that they are missing and be looking for them and their vehicle. I want closure. The visuals in my head are horrific.”

Griswold said her parents’ car is a green 1996 to 1998 Subaru Forester.

Kessel asks anyone with information about the couple or their vehicle to contact Libby Police at 406-293-3343.