Family, friends plan vigil as ex-husband remembers Riverdale homicide victim

RIVERDALE — As family and friends planned a weekend vigil to remember 33-year-old Stacey Nicole Scott, her ex-husband said he hopes her story will raise awareness about domestic violence.

"I just want the people that suffer the domestic violence or something like that to know that they're not alone," Chris Scott told KSL-TV during an interview Tuesday evening. "There are people out there that will help you."

On Thursday, Riverdale police said they found Nicole Scott stabbed multiple times at a Riverdale apartment complex.

Prosecutors subsequently charged 39-year-old Scott Thomas Myers with first-degree felony murder, among other counts. Myers, as of Tuesday, was awaiting a court appearance on May 27.

Chris Scott described Myers as an "on-and-off" boyfriend of Nicole Scott's and said their relationship had gone back years.

"I didn't even know she was talking to him again," Chris Scott said. "I thought he was still in prison. I didn't know that he was out. I didn't know she was associating with him."

Though they ended up divorcing, Chris Scott said Nicole Scott was his "best friend" up until the end.

"We made better friends than we did lovers," Chris Scott conceded. "Just because our relationship didn't work, it didn't mean we couldn't be friends."

He said he last heard from her a couple of weeks before she was killed.

"(I) never, like, thought she would be taken away in such a brutal manner," the ex-husband said.

He said he met Nicole Scott in 2012 when he got out of prison. He said she had moved into the area to live with family and they were both in treatment programs across the street from one another.

"She was fun," he remembered. "She always just liked to be a ball of joy. She had a great personality — loving, caring."

Though she had her struggles with addiction, her ex-husband said she graduated from Odyssey House and inspired others.

"She touched everybody's lives," he said. "She was a big part of people's lives, you know. She helped a lot of people get through that program."

He said she never brought up any domestic issues about Myers, though his criminal history included previous incidents where he held knives to women's throats.

Related:

Riverdale man charged with murder has history of domestic violence

A Riverdale man accused of stabbing and killing a woman in his apartment has a criminal history of domestic violence.

"She never came and said, 'Hey look, I'm afraid for my life,' or 'I'm afraid he's going to do that," Chris Scott said. "She'd never done that."

He urged other victims of domestic violence to seek help and said family and friends could be good resources.

"Don't be afraid to get away from that situation," he said.

He and other family and friends are planning a vigil to remember Nicole Scott.

It's set for Saturday from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. outside the apartment complex where Nicole was found, 4189 S. 300 West in Riverdale.

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