An 82-year-old Long Island woman, Mary Heaton, was found dead in her bed after having been brutally stabbed multiple times. The culprit was her 74-year-old husband of 40 years who claimed to have “freed her” of her illness.
Anthony Heaton later told police that the stress of taking care of her was too much to bear, authorities said Sunday.
Mary Heaton was found in her Wantagh home just after 11:45 a.m. Saturday, cops said. Anthony Heaton is charged with murder.
According to the criminal complaint against him, he used a kitchen knife to kill his wife.
“Her declining health got to him, and he couldn’t take it,” Detective Sgt. Stephen Fitzpatrick, commanding officer of the Nassau County homicide squad, told Newsday.
Heaton drove away from the house, planning to kill himself, but instead he returned home and called his son, who was on a 40-mile bike ride at the time, Fitzpatrick said.
Heaton greeted the cops at the door, and clearly confessed what he had done. He sat calmly on a couch as they investigated, Fitzpatrick added. However, he later pleaded not guilty in court.
Anthony Heaton was awaiting arraignment in 1st District Court in Hempstead Sunday.
Neighbors were shocked, wondering however, why either the elderly couple or a family member had not reached out for help before such a drastic resolution occurred. Others wondered why he committed the deed in such a violent manner. It is not known what illness Mary was suffering from.
