72-year-old man charged with wife’s killing
Jerry Canfield, 72, is charged with murdering his wife in their Alameda, Calif., home, after allegedly promising her to do so. His wife was reportedly suffering from dementia.
“Jerry Canfield’s lawyer says he promised Joann he would end her life if she just couldn’t bear the pain anymore,” ABC 7 reports. “On that Sunday, Oct. 26, he kept his word.”
As her dementia developed, Canfield had to place his wife in a nursing home for extra care.
“Jerry said, ‘you know, she’s seeing little demons. Demons are chasing her around the house,'” next door neighbor and friend Jose De Dios shares with ABC 7. “Cause she had bruises from, like falling. So she was running and tripping.
“He’d be up at seven in the morning, out the door, spend the whole day with his wife at the facility,” De Dios continues. “He’d come home at 9:30, ten o’ clock and he’d do this every day. Talk about love.”
On Oct. 25, Canfield brought his wife of 37 years back to their home. Neighbors claim that she was “unable to recognize anyone,” ABC 7 details.
Canfield reportedly placed a dozen red roses next to Joann’s bed. He shot her in the head and then drove to the police station to admit what he had done.
“This might have been the last kind thing he could do for her,” another neighbor, Rod Baker, explains to ABC 7. “And I’m sure that’s what it was. I just, nobody could ever convince me otherwise.”
Via jrn.com