Interview with the husband of murdered woman

It’s apparent that at least one party in a recent murder investigation isn’t, or wasn’t telling the truth — but one party can no longer speak up.

The two investigations into two separate murders of Tami Sunell and Travis Gillett in Lincoln County are the top priorities of the Sheriff’s Office, but little information has been released — and Sheriff Roby Bowe said there are no suspects yet in either investigation.

On Oct. 18, 2016 law enforcement responded to a report of a deceased woman, Tami Sunell, 53, and in January the death was ruled a homicide.

While the autopsy took four months due to complications at the crime lab, Bowe said that they were investigating the death long before it was ruled a homicide.

“We had some indications that it was a homicide” Bowe said. While the Sheriff’s Office investigates any unattended death, Bowe noted her age, among “other signs,” made the death suspicious. Bowe wouldn’t get into the ‘other signs,’ because it would affect the investigation.

Despite little information getting out — Bowe said that Sunell was seeking a divorce from her husband, Floyd Sunell, and had recently filed a restraining order against him.

Floyd agreed to meet with The Western News for an interview this week, to discuss his wife’s death.

Q. How have you been?

A. I’m OK.

Q. Are you from the area?

A. Oh yeah, I’ve been here since the 1950s.

Q. Are you retired or still working?

A. I’m still working.

Q. How have you been since your wife passed?

A. [My son and I] have had our moments, especially during hunting season, remembering where mom shot this one bow or when mom shot this one. Certain areas were hard for us. We were going through divorce. It was crazy, everything was crazy. I still don’t understand what happened. She swore I hit her and I never did, and this and that. I got evicted from my own house. I was living out in a camper. I just bought a camper — a decent one. She had me do a 24/7. The court ordered it. I still don’t have a clue. I have no record of alcohol or any kind of abuse. So, I didn’t understand that, but they said I had to do that so I did. Me and the boy had planned that, since he turns 14 this year, I was going to go back to court to get him, because when he turned 14 he could make up his mind.

Q. Is he both yours and Tami’s son?

A. Both.

Q. Did he miss any school?

A. Yeah, he missed a little bit. I don’t remember how much.

Q. When it was ruled a homicide, what went through your mind?

A. Well they called me and they said it was suspicion to start out with. I can’t figure it out ... she had me kicked out of the house and she had money from her mom passing away. She just changed. Nothing makes sense to me.

Q. Have you stayed in contact with your wife’s family?

A. Oh yeah, I talk with her daughters all the time.

Q. How are they holding up?

A. They’re just like me, they’d like to get some answers.

Q. Sources tell us that you remodeled the house since she passed? Is that true?

A. That’s another thing, these rumors that go on. The only thing I’ve done to the house is move the furniture around, and I bought our son a bed. Recently I built a wall, so he has his own private bedroom now ... so now we both have bigger bedrooms. I just don’t understand.

Q. But you used to live in the camper?

A. I was until she passed.

Q. Then you moved back in?

A. Yes, court said I could go back.

Q. Tell me about Tami. What was she like?

A. She changed a lot. She was going to school. She told me she had two years of nursing left, so I was going to work until I retired and then she was going to support us. I found out after we started going through divorce that she was going to be graduating this June. She changed her style, clothes, attitude, everything. She was different.

Q. Did she seem scared?

A. No. In fact we got along last summer better than we had in a long time. We went horse riding. We have horses. That’s why I don’t get it. I really don’t.

Q. How did you two meet?

A. Down in Arizona. She’s from there and she was working with my sister-in-law at a restaurant that I used to go to.

Q. Was it a good marriage?

A. Off and on ... she didn’t like me drinking at all. That was the first time I’d been drunk in over a year, the night that she called the police on me. I went to a family reunion ... and she didn’t go with us. I saw some of relatives I hadn’t seen in years, a couple blocks down the road.

Q. What did she tell the police?

A. That I hit her, and I heard a rumor that someone said that I used to beat her all the time. I never hit her. Never. I don’t know where they get that.

Q. Do you think that she told them that you used to beat her?

A. I think it was someone she went to school with. She had a lot of friends. She could sit at home, me and the boy would be there, and she be on the phone with one of her friends just laughing and having a good time. Then she’d get off the phone and say, “I have to get back to work.” She never sat around and talked to us and laughed like that. Even when we went for rides. We went to Kalispell and she would have her schoolbooks with her. So, she really didn’t spend that much time with us at all at the end.

Q. But you were going through a divorce?

A. The divorce started a month or couple months before she passed away. That’s what started it, I had to move out of the house. She got a restraining order on me. Even the police said that there were no signs of me hitting her. My son was there, he said I didn’t hit her. For some reason, the judge believed her.

Q. Were you surprised when she wanted a divorce?

A. Yeah, it shocked me.

Q. So, you have no idea why she wanted a divorce?

A. She claimed I hit her. I don’t know, because like I said we got along so well last summer. It’s hard to believe. We really did ... I don’t understand it. All these accusations on Facebook and this and that. Why do people put it on there? It don’t make sense. They don’t know what’s going on. They’re just making up stories. Then my son hears about it, or my family hears about it. It feels like I’m being punished for it. It’s crazy, and I haven’t heard from [law enforcement] since they took our computers (for the investigation) four months ago. I’m just sitting here waiting. It’s hard to go on without knowing anything.

Q. What would you say to people who may believe you killed her?

A. I don’t even know what to say to them, except for they don’t know me enough to be able to accuse me of something like that. If they knew me, they knew I wouldn’t, or couldn’t. Nobody that I know believes that I could’ve done it either.

Q. Do you have people on your side?

A. Oh yeah, my family. I haven’t been going and seeing people. I get tired talking about it. I have to keep repeating the story and repeating it and I don’t want to talk about it anymore. Me and my son are trying to move on. The state wants ... me to go to some kind of alcohol treatment. It’s like, why? Why should I have to do that? I didn’t do anything, and I have no record of anything ... we just want to be left alone … I just want it over and some answers.

Q. Do you have any idea who could have done it?

A. No. Not a clue.

Q. This woman came into The Western News the other day, claiming to be Tami’s friend. She said that, Tami said before she died that if anything were to happen to her, you had done it.

A. Really? Did you know who it was?

Q. I didn’t catch her name.

A. She had so many friends at the school, so I wouldn’t know which one. I wasn’t a danger to my wife at all. She even got on the stand and said that I was a danger to other women. You can ask any women I work with. I don’t know why she did and why. It just hurts. The stories and the accusations.

Floyd said that this summer, he’s and his son are going to go horse riding and spread her ashes and send some of the ashes to her daughters in Arizona.

The sheriff’s office is requesting that anyone that may have information related to the case to contact Detective Nate Scofield at 293-4112.