RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Authorities in Chesterfield County believe a retired physician fatally shot his paralyzed and terminally ill wife before turning the gun on himself.
Chesterfield County police Capt. Michael Louth tells news outlets that a home health care worker discovered the bodies of 68-year-old Marilyn A. Rudzinski and 73-year-old Dennis J. Rudzinski on Wednesday morning inside their Richmond-area home. Their deaths are being investigated as a murder-suicide.
Longtime friend and neighbor Sally Ward tells the Richmond Times-Dispatch that Marilyn Rudzinski had stage IV melanoma cancer, which had spread down her spine and paralyzed her.
Ward says that Dennis Rudzinski sent an email to a group of his neighbors about an hour before the shootings, thanking them for their support. The neighbors had been taking turns assisting the couple.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch story describes the neighborhood as extremely close knit, with some of the couples having bought the homes there some 40 years before when the development was first built. Ward said the husband was dedicated to caring for his wife, but was overwrought by her condition.
“He was just beside himself and didn’t know what to do,” said longtime friend Sally Ward, who lives a couple of blocks away. “We think that he was overwhelmed.”
“This was an act of love,” Ward added. “They were just a couple that were never apart. They were always together. You always used to see them, and they were never alone. They were always grocery shopping on Sundays together.”
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