Friend: Husband Killed Wife on Life Support at Hospital as an Act of Love

[n2doc]

A husband and wife were killed in a New Hampshire hospital Tuesday in an apparent murder-suicide shooting that their friend told NECN was an "act of love," not a crime.

Mark and Katherine Lavoie both died after shots were fired just after 6 a.m. at Wentworth-Douglass Hospital in Dover, friends and family confirmed to NECN. Authorities have not revealed the pair's identities.

The New Hampshire attorney general's office said the investigation is still in its early stages, but the two deaths appear to be the result of a murder-suicide. Autopsies will be conducted to determine the cause and manner of the deaths.

On Facebook, Mark Lavoie stated his anguished motives for wanting to take his wife's life, writing in part, "now because of my selfishness in dialing 911, she is experiencing the only thing she feared more than her illness, life-support on a respirator."

more

http://www.necn.com/news/new-england/Report-Police-Investigating-Murder-at-New-Hampshire-Hospital-287106271.html

[KittyWampus]

1. The woman apparently attempted suicide and ended up a vegetable:

So sad.

According to Hanson, it wasn't a secret that Katherine Lavoie was battling depression, and she said she believes Katherine tried to commit suicide on Sunday night, which was when her husband called 911. Hanson said Katherine Lavoie ended up on life support at Wentworth-Douglass Hospital.

[joshcryer]

2. Here's his FB post:

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/12/30/mark-lavoie-facebook-message/sH8PLH7xRaoMBI0FOjqPVK/story.html

Tragic story all around. Not a jilted lover, someone who hates society, someone who is out to kill, or even potentially mentally ill. Seems like someone lost who thinks they have the answer (I don't think suicide was the answer mind, you, but his state of mind at the time of writing, he had it figured out).

Sad.

[Chemisse]

3. What a sad story.

It sounds like her life was very difficult, due to mental illness.

[2naSalit]

4. I once knew

an elderly couple (the husband was a retired Univ. Prof whom I knew) who had a similar end. the wife had some seriously debilitating health problems late in life, the husband was losing his mobility and used a walker when I met him. He shot them both, most who were close weren't surprised and suspected that the two had made a suicide pact at some point since neither of the two had mental capacity problems. It was a shock and sad but it's what happened.

I, personally, am familiar with beating oneself up over having called 911 or "saving" someone only to have them suffer horribly for the duration of their lives. I once had a lover who suffered a broken neck in a swimming pool before my vary eyes. I was the rescue squad until an ambulance came 45 minutes later, we were in a rural location and it took several minutes for a neighbor to come and see what my yelling was about. My dear one suffered as a quadriplegic for 30 years thereafter. I spent much of the first year hoping for recovery of mobility which never came. Then I was left to beating myself up for a couple years for having spared my love from drowning though I was also concerned that I may have been arrested for letting them drown at a few points in my delirium. What saved me from my self appointed hell was my lover telling me they never wanted to drown and was very grateful for my actions.

It's hard to know what to do in the heat of the moment when someone is in serious need of medical attention to save their life but another consideration is that if you are aware of someone in need and do nothing - like call 911 - you may be held liable for their death because you did nothing. Depends on where you are and other specifics but it puts you in a strange situation to say the least.

Sad for this family.