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Thursday, May 2, 2013 9:00 AM UTC

Murder-suicide of 3 ailing in Calif. investigated

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Topics: From the Wires, ,

HACIENDA HEIGHTS, Calif. (AP) — Every morning, Jim Crabtree said he would wake up, wash and dress his wife who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, and drop her off at his parents’ home so he could go to work.

On Wednesday, he did the same, without any sign of trouble. Hours later, his parents and his wife were dead in an apparent murder-suicide.

Los Angeles County sheriff’s detectives were still trying to determine the reason.

Crabtree identified the three dead people as his 80-year-old mother, Carol Crabtree, his 84-year-old father, Dan Crabtree, and his 62-year-old wife, Rita Delehanty.

Crabtree, 55, said all three suffered from chronic illnesses: His wife from mid-stage Alzheimer’s, his father from early-stage Alzheimer’s, and his mother from debilitating chronic joint pain that forced her to use a wheelchair.

It was apparent to Crabtree that their failing health led them to hasten their deaths. “This is the classic ending of three people with terminal illnesses,” he said.

Authorities found the three after a 911 call Wednesday morning brought deputies to the quiet suburban neighborhood in Hacienda Heights.

Sheriff’s Lt. Dave Dolson said investigators found the couple and their daughter-in-law with gunshots wounds: Delehanty was dead in the living room, Carol Crabtree’s body was in a powered wheelchair in the back bedroom, and Dan Crabtree was barely alive on the backyard porch. A shotgun and handgun were found near him.

“We believe it’s a murder-suicide,” Dolson said. “All evidence right now points to the fact that the husband likely shot and killed the daughter-in-law and his wife, and then shot himself.”

Investigators believe it was Dan Crabtree who may have made the 911 call indicating someone was shot at the house, Dolson said, but detectives didn’t know the motive.

“At this point we really can’t nail it down,” Dolson said. “We may never.”

Marjorie Bauer was in her house a block away when she heard a single gunshot shortly before 9 a.m. She was speaking with her neighbors George and Alice Parrish about what happened, while looking over at the police tape Wednesday afternoon. All three have lived in the area for many decades.

“It’s shocking,” said Alice Parrish. “You don’t expect it in your own backyard.”

The Crabtrees were friendly with their neighbors, and were known to bicker, or “fuss and carry on,” said George Parrish.

Residents would see Carol Crabtree out taking walks, but more recently, she was rarely seen.

“She couldn’t walk anymore, she was in a lot of pain,” Alice Parrish said.

Though Dan and Carol Crabtree were suffering from poor health, they agreed to care for their son’s wife so he could work.

His wife would have breakfast with her in-laws each morning, and Jim Crabtree would go to his job as a registered nurse who trained paramedics for the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services. Later in the day, his parents would drop his wife off at her home about a mile away, and paid caregivers would take care of her until Crabtree returned.

Crabtree spoke outside his parents’ home Wednesday about his wife’s progressively worsening Alzheimer’s over the last seven years. Delehanty had also been a nurse, but she had to stop working five years ago because of her illness. The two had been married 25 years and never had kids, he said.

“My wife didn’t know who I was. My wife didn’t know we were married,” Crabtree said. “You try to help her, she yells, she screams, she hits you.”

Crabtree wore a white tie Wednesday with a purple ribbon on it that said “I wear purple for my wife” and pledged Alzheimer’s awareness.

“The pain and misery that comes with this dementia, until you lived it, you don’t get it,” Crabtree said. He said caregivers cost him $2,000 a month and none of it was covered by insurance.

After years of withering emotional drain caring for his wife, he said he was somewhat relieved it was all over. As he had looked into the future, he had wondered how it was going to end.

“When somebody dies, you don’t want to go out and say I’m overjoyed my parents and my wife are dead, but in some cases, my wife died years ago,” Crabtree said.

___

Tami Abdollah can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/latams .

More Tami Abdollah.

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