Husband kills wife at nursing home before killing himself

FISHERSVILLE — Authorities believe an elderly man visiting his wife at Shenandoah Nursing Home shot her to death Saturday morning before turning the gun on himself in an apparent murder-suicide.

The husband was aged 84, and his wife 83. Their names have not been released.

The woman was killed at approximately 11 a.m. inside a room of the nursing home, isolated from other residents and staff, said Deputy Felicia Glick of the Augusta County Sheriff's Office.

The crime scene and the residents at the facility were quickly secured, Cpl. Eddie Mock of Augusta County Sheriff's Office said.

"The incident was in a single or private room," Glick said. "They were the only two in the room."

A gold Buick LeSabre parked in a handicapped space in front of the nursing home was taped off as a crime scene.

The facility is an assisted living and nursing and rehabilitation center. No details were released on any illness the wife or the husband might have been dealing with.

After the 911 call for the shooting, deputies swarmed the nursing home, which is located off Westminister Drive.

Sharon Hay, who once worked at the nursing home as an aide, arrived to take out to lunch one of the residents she used to care for.

"It was a serious incident," Hay said as she emerged from the facility, confirming the shooting report.

"I'm keeping him out of that mess for a few hours," Hay said later while having lunch with the resident, a man she said she "adopted" and sees regularly since leaving her job there. Although he did not see the incident happen, "he's pretty shook up about it," she said.

Soon after the shooting, a staff person said they were giving residents' families only the minimum information needed, and controlling who left and entered the building. A nurse trying to get some ibuprofen from her car was called back inside.

A quarter of murder-suicides in the U.S. occur among people aged 55 and older, according to the Violence Policy Center.

While the particulars of this case are still unclear, Dr. Marc Agronin, the medical director for mental health and clinical research at Miami Jewish Health Systems, said the typical case involves a couple, one of whom may have Alzheimer's disease, while the other is the primary caregiver, and becomes overwhelmed.

"Older white men are one of the highest risk groups for suicide," Agronin said. "That fact may be related to these situations, in which the man becomes suicidal because he can no longer bear to see his wife in such a state and decides to end it for both of them."

Usually it's a lifelong marriage, and the man can't imagine life without his wife.

The combination of grief and caregiving become a toxic mixture, he said.