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83-year-old woman's shooting death ruled a suicide

The death of an 83-year-old woman found in her East Germantown home last week with a gunshot wound to her chest has been ruled a suicide, homicide detectives said Tuesday.

The death of an 83-year-old woman found in her East Germantown home last week with a gunshot wound to her chest has been ruled a suicide, homicide detectives said Tuesday.

Mary Morton shot herself in her home on the 400 block of East Cosgrove Street about 12:50 p.m. Thursday. She was pronounced dead at Einstein Medical Center shortly afterward.

Police initially thought Morton had been shot twice in her chest. But the Medical Examiner's Office determined that Morton had another "hole in her body due to cancer treatment," a police spokesman has said.

Morton lived in her home with her husband. At the time of the shooting, he was downstairs visiting with the couple's two daughters, a relative said last week.

- Julie Shaw