The man, unable to take care of his wife with Alzheimer’s, then decided to take action after a first attempt in 2020.
The trial of an 88-year-old man, tried for having killed his wife in May 2020 in Francueil (Indre-et-Loire) against a background of illness and addiction, began on Monday in Tours before the Assize Court of Indre -et-Loire. The octogenarian, who is on trial for “spouse homicide”, admitted to killing his 84-year-old wife by hitting her with the butt of a shotgun in her bed.
According to elements of the investigation, the two octogenarians, without children, had lived together since 1952. According to the witnesses heard, they were very much in love and had settled in Touraine in 1987 after having spent their professional life in the Paris region.
A victim in poor health
The couple, passionate about dance, lived a happy relationship until the sudden deterioration of the health of the wife at the beginning of the year 2020. After several stays in the hospital, she had become “very dependent“, according to the prosecution. Her autopsy showed she had Alzheimer’s disease.
Faced with the distress of his wife and unable to take care of the care alone, the former fruit and vegetable seller then decided to take action. He justified his action by the couple’s desire to leave together. Faced with the investigators, he however admitted that the victim was no longer in a condition to consent to suicide in May 2020. He also explained that he did not want to place his wife in a specialized retirement home.
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In May 2020, he had first tried unsuccessfully to kill his wife and himself by carbon monoxide poisoning. The old man then started again with gas cylinders. After his first unsuccessful attempts, the husband then “used a pellet gun which jammed, before taking a shotgun and striking with the butt“, had specified the public prosecutor of Tours Grégoire Dulin at the time of the facts.
The man says he then tried to hang himself with a rope in his living room, without succeeding. He had then contacted the family, who had alerted the gendarmes. The trial is scheduled until Wednesday. The octogenarian has been in pre-trial detention since the events.