Margaret Kearney, Pasco County, Florida woman burned out from ongoing taking care of terminally ill boyfriend of 15 years charged with murder after smothering 69 year old man to death.
Killed him to prevent him from any further pain …. or to prevent herself from dealing with further pain and burn out?
A Florida woman has been charged with murder after admitting to smothering her terminally ill boyfriend with a pillow because she was ‘disgusted’ with having to care for him as he lay dying of cancer, according to court records.
Margaret Kearney, 69, was arrested Tuesday for the premeditated murder of her boyfriend of 15 years at the home the couple shared in New Port Richey, Pasco County.
Girlfriend expressed disgust having to take care of terminally ill boyfriend
On Dec. 20, the man was found dead by a visiting nurse who went to his house to treat him.
The victim was under hospice care for terminal rectal cancer, according to the complaint affidavit.
Deputies with the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office were called to the scene and observed that the man had ‘no concerning injuries.’
The next day, however, Kearney’s friend of 30 years reached out to the authorities to tell them that she had had several concerning phone calls recently with the woman about her boyfriend’s health.
The friend told an investigator that Kearney ‘expressed disgust with having to care for the victim, as the victim was defecating himself due to his illness and she did not wish to clean him and would wait for Hospice or a home health care nurse to clean him next time they visited,’ the filing stated.
Kearney’s friend then claimed that shortly after 10:30 pm the night before, she got a call from the woman ‘who told her that she smothered the victim with a pillow and he was ‘gone.”
Moral dilemma
According to the informant, Kearney told her she planned to cover her dead boyfriend with a blanket, so that when his nurse came the next day, she would assume he died in his sleep, FOX13 reported.
During a controlled phone call between Kearney and her friend the following day, the murder suspect was quoted as saying that she felt ‘better’ about the situation — and confirmed using a pillow to smother her boyfriend, the affidavit alleged.
During police questioning, Kearney allegedly confessed to killing her boyfriend by pressing a pillow to his face for 5 minutes, after he called him into the bedroom complaining of pain.
Kearney allegedly told investigators that her boyfriend was ‘alive and alert’ before she smothered him and was no longer breathing after she removed the pillow from his face.
The girlfriend spent the night on the couch, and when the nurse came the following day, she let her believe that her boyfriend died of natural causes in his sleep.
Kearney sought to justify her actions by claiming that she killed her terminally ill boyfriend ‘to prevent him from any further pain.’
She also allegedly admitted to intentionally over-medicating the victim with liquid morphine before his death.
The case raises questions as to caring for terminally ill patients, the ability to maintain ongoing care, both mentally and financially, the resources and facilities available to care-takers, if any, along with the moral obligation and duty to care for a dying significant other.
