Sheriff: Caretaker kills terminally ill women, then himself
RIVERVIEW, Fla. (AP) — A 64-year-old Florida man who said caring for his terminally ill wife and stepdaughter had become overwhelming fatally shot the women and then called 911 before killing himself, authorities said.
Thomas Schultz told the dispatcher on Wednesday morning that the family was “in an impossible situation with no way out," Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister said.
The man asked the dispatcher to send someone to “secure the residence," the sheriff said.
"As she tries to even engage in conversation, he says, ‘I have to go, I’m fixing to shoot myself,’” Chronister said.
Deputies arrived moments later and found Shultz dead on the back porch, with a revolver next to him, the sheriff said. The body of his wife, Joy, was in one bedroom. The stepdaughter, who was in her 50s, was in a hospital bed with a feeding tube in another room.
Family members told investigators that both women had terminal illnesses, the sheriff said.
The Tampa Bay Times reported that Wednesday’s deaths were at least the ninth suspected murder-suicide involving people from the Tampa Bay area so far this year.
Troy Quinn, who lived next door to the family in the Tampa suburb Riverview, told the Times that Schultz had recently shared a bit about being a caretaker to both women.