Putnam woman, 74, died from hypothermia while trying to help husband

An autopsy showed that a Putnam County woman found dead in her yard Thursday succumbed to hypothermia.

Sheriff Howard Sills said Maria Riffe, 74, of Flat Rock Circle, had gone out into her yard at about 5:30 p.m. Wednesday evening to help her husband.

Roy Riffe, 86, was in a motorized wheelchair that tipped over as he headed up a concrete walkway on a steep grade on the way back to his house.

He cried for help, and his wife, who used a walker, started toward him but she also fell. She was wearing only a nightgown.

The next morning, Sills said, a caregiver came to the home and found the two in the yard. Roy Riffe, who had on a jacket and sweat pants, was alive but his wife was dead.

"It was a very tragic situation," Sills said.

Roy Riffe was taken to Putnam General Hospital and has since been released, Sills said.

The house is in a neighborhood but Sills said the homes immediately around them were vacant at the time, so no one heard the cries for help.

This story was originally published January 16, 2016 at 4:37 PM with the headline "Putnam woman, 74, died from hypothermia while trying to help husband ."