Uncle says accident affected couple's son

To say William and Charmaine Sharp were family-oriented would be an understatement.

They were "always going places and doing things together," like taking fishing trips to Flaming Gorge. She stopped working in public schools to stay home and teach her children. He wrote letters and campaigned for office as a "pro-life advocate."

But on Wednesday, police arrested one of the couple's children after William Sharp, 51, and Charmaine Sharp, 54, were found fatally shot in their Castle Dale home.

Prosecutors are expected to file charges Friday against Peter Sharp, 26, in connection with their deaths. But William Sharp's brother, Kelly Sharp, said he doesn't think Peter Sharp knew what he was doing Wednesday. The uncle said his nephew was injured in a truck accident several years ago and has not been the same since.

"I know with being around him and stuff, that he would look at you like he was wondering who he was," Kelly Sharp told the Deseret News Thursday. "Several years ago, he had a wreck, and the truck ended up on his head. … His head swelled up real big, and he was never the same after that. He was really disturbed because of it."

Kelly Sharp said Peter Sharp could be silent and often just seemed like a "really confused young man." At a wedding this past year, Peter Sharp didn't even recognize some of the people in his own family.

But the uncle said he's never known his nephew to be violent before.

"He's never done anything violent," Kelly Sharp said. "He just wandered around."

When Kelly Sharp first learned that his brother and sister-in-law had been killed and that Peter Sharp had been arrested, he said he was shocked.

"What a tragedy to have that happen," Kelly Sharp said. "It's a shock to all of us."

William Sharp's family has been marked by tragedy in recent years. Kelly Sharp said their younger brother David died in a freak truck accident about four years ago, and their father died two years later. At this point, Kelly Sharp said, death has been coming to the Richfield-raised family about every two years.

Kelly Sharp said their family was raised in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Both William and Charmaine Sharp served missions for the church. The couple raised their family as Mormons until around 1989, when they left the church because they didn't feel its stance against abortion was strict enough.