Daddy’s In the Backyard: The Walter Couch Story
- Gina Westfall
- Apr 7
- 4 min read
Daddy’s In the Backyard: The Walter Couch Story
Walter and Dorothy Couch were the proud parents of Walter Douglas Couch, born on May 17th, 1949. They raised their son in Cincinnati, Ohio. Like most parents, they doted on their son and had high hopes for his future. When he met a young woman, Linda, at a wedding reception and soon married, they tried to help set a life up for the newlyweds. They allowed them to move into their home, eventually placing the deed for the home in their son’s name as they moved into a home of their own. This allowed their son and daughter-in-law to become a family. Linda soon had three children, two daughters and finally a son.
Linda, born January 15th, 1954, recalls being smitten with Walter when she first met him. She later regretted rushing into the relationship. At sixteen years old, she moved in with Walt, as she called him, and his parents. She soon married and became pregnant with her eldest daughter, Roxanne. She states that her oldest child was not the child her husband expected. He wanted a son and her husband resented that Roxanne was overweight and looked a lot like her mother. She described daily beating by her husband. The beatings were allegedly focused on herself but later included her daughter.
The second child of the Couch family was also a daughter, but their third child was a son. According to Linda, the abuse was focused only on her and Roxanne. In statements and interviews given by Roxanne, physical abuse has been corroborated. Walt often hit his daughter with his belt. Roxanne described her father as having an explosive temper. He also frequently hit his wife. In more recent interviews, Linda claims that she was raped by Walt and his friends.
Other issues certainly existed in the marriage as well, primarily financial. Roxanne was “the keeper of the secrets”. She described her mother as very secretive with money. She states that her mother would take out loans and keep financial secrets from her father. She would hide statements and bank statements in the ceiling and force the young girl to keep secrets from her father. She stated that the bank was starting to insist that Mr. Couch come in personally to discuss financial matters, something Linda knew would cause major issues for her.
On October 13th, 1984, Linda sent the children to their grandparents’ house for the night. She had was in a nursing program, trying to establish some freedom from her husband. However, he was asking her to drop her college classes. He had demanded that she drop out of the nursing program. She planned to stand up to him that night and tell him no, she would not drop out of the program. She was afraid of how he may react, she said.
According to Linda, Walter was enraged and went for the gun that the two had just recently purchased, a .22 caliber semi-automatic. She said she didn’t know what to do so she went at him and kicked him in the groin. When she did this, she said the gun went off and shot him in the head. Walter was dead. Lying there on the floor, she didn’t know what to do, according to Linda. So, she rolled him up in a carpet and put him in the basement for two days.
Instead of calling the police, Linda said she panicked. She said she wasn’t sure what to do. She also said that her husband once said he wanted to be buried in the backyard. So, what did she do? She had her neighbor, unbeknownst to him, help carry the rolled-up carpet up the stairs from the basement and outside. She had her father-in-law and children, unbeknownst to them, help dig a hole in the backyard for a “garden” that she buried her husband in. Then she buried Walt in the backyard of their home.
Walter Sr. and Dorothy started to ask questions, however, and the smell of decomposition started to become obvious. Ten days after he disappeared, Walter Sr. and Dorothy finally figured out exactly where Walter was and called the police on October 23rd, 1984. Walters remains were discovered in the backyard of the family’s home. Linda Couch was arrested and taken into custody.
Was this really an accident? Was it possible? Walt had been shot once, directly in the back of the head. The .22 caliber pistol had not been purchased by Walt at all but by Linda Couch just days before the murder. She had even asked the guy at the department store to show her how to load it and shoot it. She didn’t notify authorities right away to try to get aid for her husband if this had truly been an accident. She even had her children help bury their father!
Investigators also found that the deed to the home, which Walt’s parents had put solely in his name, had been altered and forged to be put into Linda Couch’s name. Roxanne testified against her mother at trial. She described the numerous loans, credit cards, and financial issues that her mother had been hiding from her father and the forgeries she had been witness to.
Her daughter claims that the statements about her being raped are absolutely false and that while Linda was beaten by Walt, Linda is a pathological liar.
Linda Couch was sentenced to life in prison. In January of 2026 she was granted supervised medical parole to a medical facility as she is currently undergoing cancer treatment.
REFERENCES
Tipping, D. & Parker, N. (2022) Trapped: Linda Couch
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