An 84-year-old South Jersey man killed his ailing wife in what police say may have been a mercy killing
Police say the man may have acted out of mercy because his wife was in failing health.
An 84-year-old Burlington County man stabbed his wife to death in what law enforcement officials say may have been a mercy killing.
Dan Mook, of Mount Laurel, killed his wife, Sharon, 82, at the assisted living facility where they lived, Prosecutor Scott Coffina and Mount Laurel Police Chief Stephen Riedener said in a statement. Sharon Mook had been in poor health, they said, and her husband may have killed her because he was concerned that she was suffering.
He then stabbed himself multiple times, they said, and was later hospitalized in stable condition.
Mook has been charged with first-degree murder and weapons offenses.
Mount Laurel police responded to a report of a stabbing at the assisted living facility on Fernbrooke Lane just before 7:30 p.m. Sunday and found Sharon Mook dead in the couple’s bedroom. Her husband, they said, was found suffering from multiple self-inflicted cuts and stab wounds and was taken to Cooper University Hospital in Camden.
Prosecutors will seek to have him held for a bond hearing after he is discharged from the hospital, a spokesperson for the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office said Tuesday.