Man 'happily married' for 43 years walks into nursing home and shoots dead MS-suffering wife before turning gun on himself

A man has shot his wife of 43 years in a nursing home in Colorado.

Joyce Schaffer, 69, had been in the Wheatridge Manor Care Center recovering from a broken hip for ten months.
She also suffered from multiple sclerosis.

Loving couple: Donald Schaffer, 67, shot his wife of 43 years, Joyce, 69, as she lay in bed, before shooting himself with the handgun

Donald Schaffer, 67, who is thought to have been suffering from depression over his wife's condition, entered the home and shot her with a handgun before shooting himself.
Friends and family of the dead couple said they were happily married.

 

'They were very much in love and after being separated for the last several months, we believe they are finally back together,' the family said in a statement, reports the Denver Post.
Police are not treating the incident as suspicious.

Nursing home: Mrs Schaffer had been in the Wheatridge Manor Care Center for ten months recovering from a hip injury

Lisa Spinder, public information officer for the Wheat Ridge police department, said, 'It appears to be a murder-suicide - and it looks pretty cut-and-dried at this time'.
Experts said the Schaffers fit the profile of a typical murder-suicide case carried out by older couples. 

THE FACTS: MURDER-SUICIDES IN THE U.S.

• There are about 2000 murder suicides in the U.S. every year
• 300 to 500 cases involve couples over the age of 55
• About 90 percent of shootings are carried out by men
• Depression over long-term separation or feelings of being overwhelmed by caring for a sick spouse are key triggers
• Typically, the couple have a history of happy marriage with no records of domestic violence

That is, they are depressed and overwhelmed by caring for an ill spouse, says Donna Cohen from the University of South Florida.

Certainly, Schaffer showed no signs of being anything but a loving husband.
'One possible scenario is wanting to put his wife out of her misery as he perceives it,' she said. 
'The second is, he may have gotten some information that his health status has changed, and in these lifelong marriages, they don't believe someone can care for the spouse as they can.'
Ms Cohen also said that it is often the male spouse that will carry out the tragic act.
'Men do this because they have more experience with guns, and men don't talk about their depression with others like women do,' she said.
There are about 2,000 murder-suicides in the U.S. every year, with about 300 to 500 cases involving couples over the age of 55.  
The Minnesota Center for Battered Woman says that around 90 percent of murder-suicides are carried out by men.