Tamara Terry thought her husband, Matthew A. Terry, had left their home on Friday night to get his cell phone, which he had left at a fund-raiser.
She did not understand what was keeping him out so late until a Hallandale police detective called about 2:30 a.m. to tell her that her husband, dean of the Nova Southeastern University medical school, had shot himself to death less than a mile from their spacious home on Diplomat Parkway.
“I didn’t even know he had [a gun),” said Tamara Terry, his wife of four years. “He’s the last person in the world that would do something like this.”
On Sunday, Tamara Terry and her parents, who flew in from Maryland, searched for answers as to what could have made the man they described as “gentle and kind” take his life.
“You can usually tell if someone is suicidal; this was not the case with Matthew,” said his father-in-law, Kevin Speight. “The last thing he appeared was depressed.”
Terry said her husband was happy at work and had recently received a prestigious appointment as director of a nationwide $6.5 million managed care project. But a year-old custody dispute with his ex-wife weighed heavily on him, she said.
“I still can’t believe it. I guess it must have been a lot of stress . . . getting custody of his son,” Tamara Terry said.
Matthew Terry, 48, had two sons from a previous marriage. He was trying to get custody of one of them, who had been living with the Terrys since June, Tamara Terry said.
On Friday night, Tamara and Matthew Terry attended the Snowflake Ball, a $250-a-plate Nova fund-raiser at the Marriott Harbor Beach Hotel in Fort Lauderdale. Rob Seitz, director of public affairs for Nova, said he saw the Terrys leave the party about 10:30 p.m.
After going home, Matthew Terry left again. Shortly before midnight, he was stopped by a Hallandale police officer, who suspected Terry had hit a parked car in the 1400 block of Atlantic Shores Boulevard. The front end of Terry’s car was crumpled and his horn blared, apparently stuck, police said.
The officer followed Terry for about eight blocks before Terry stopped in the 2200 block of Atlantic Shores Boulevard. While searching for his registration, Terry pulled a snub-nosed .38-caliber revolver from his pants, police said.
Officers responding to an accident report tried to calm Terry down for about 20 minutes, and asked him to give up the gun before Terry shot himself once in the chest.
Tamara Terry said her husband might have worried the accident could cost him custody of his son.
“I think he was very nervous that it might ruin his case,” she said.
On Sunday, flags at the university flew at half mast and the medical school was blanketed with fliers alerting students and faculty of Terry’s death.
“I’m completely shocked,” Seitz said. “He seemed fine. Papers on his desk indicate he had plans for the rest of the week.”
Students who want to attend memorial services today will be excused from classes, Seitz said.
