Man's slaying leaves wife with questions

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Authorities urge anyone with information on this case to contact the Hidalgo County Sheriff's Office at (956) 668-8477.

SAN JUAN -- John Peters always told his wife the less she knew about his problems, the better.

Then he turned up dead.

Now, Lydia Peters, 45, of San Juan, has been left to wonder what exactly troubled her husband and if it played a role in his slaying.

"This was completely unexpected," she said. "I have no idea what happened."

On Monday, Hidalgo County sheriff's deputies found John Peters' body slumped over the backseat of a Jeep Cherokee abandoned near the intersection of Val Verde Road and South Street, west of Donna.

Investigators believe the severe bruises they found on his head and chest were the result of a beating but have not identified any suspects in the slaying so far.

They have described John Peters, 44, as a drug abuser with past convictions for assault, theft, driving while intoxicated, domestic abuse and solicitation.

And while Lydia Peters was aware of her husband's checkered past, she said Wednesday that was not the man she knew.

"He did have a long criminal history. I'm not going to deny that," she said. "But he was trying to change his life."

John Peters had struggled to turn his life around in recent years by taking work as a plumber and carpenter, she said. He often offered to help neighbors with their odd jobs.

Still, in the past few months he appeared to be suffering a deep depression.

Doctors diagnosed him with bipolar disorder, but he often refused to take his medicine because of the effect he felt it had on his mood, Lydia Peters said. In a letter left after a recent suicide attempt, he reportedly wrote that he couldn't shake his demons.

"In the last two months, he wouldn't talk much," his wife said. "The only thing that he would reassure me of is that he loved me."

Despite her husband's past, Lydia Peters wants his killer to know he did more than slay a troubled man.

"The John Peters that they killed that day," she said, "that was the John Peters I loved dearly."

The Peters family plans to host a memorial service at 7 p.m. Thursday at Hawkins Funeral Home, 2222 E. Expressway 83, Weslaco.

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Jeremy Roebuck covers courts and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4437.