--- title: Husband Kills Wife After He Couldn't Afford Her Medicine description: An elderly man said he fatally shot his ailing wife while she slept because he couldn't afford her medication, according to an affidavit. canonical: https://time.com/4339863/husband-killed-wife-medicine/ author: NBC News article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-18T14:13:16.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T17:37:54.242Z article:section: U.S. og:title: Elderly Man Killed Wife Because He Couldn't Afford Her Medication: Authorities og:description: He said that his wife had suffered from several illnesses that required numerous medications, which he could no longer afford og:url: https://time.com/4339863/husband-killed-wife-medicine/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Elderly Man Killed Wife Because He Couldn't Afford Her Medication: Authorities twitter:description: He said that his wife had suffered from several illnesses that required numerous medications, which he could no longer afford twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Elderly Man Killed Wife Because He Couldn't Afford Her Medication, Authorities Say by [Ali Gostanian / NBC News](/author/nbc-news/) ## Ali Gostanian / NBC News May 18, 2016 2:13 PM CUT by [Ali Gostanian / NBC News](/author/nbc-news/) ## Ali Gostanian / NBC News May 18, 2016 2:13 PM CUT An elderly man said he fatally shot his ailing wife while she slept because he couldn’t afford her medication, according to an arrest affidavit. William J. Hager, 86, allegedly told deputies who were sent to his home in Port St. Lucie, Florida, that he had “bad news” and had killed his wife about five hours earlier. Carolyn F. Hager was found propped up with pillows and covered with a blanket in bed with a gunshot wound to the left side of her head. The affidavit quoted the victim’s husband as apologizing to police for not contacting them earlier. “I wanted to…” [_Read the rest of this story from our partners at NBC News_](http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/elderly-mom-killed-husband-who-couldn-t-afford-medication-cops-n575921 "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4339863/husband-killed-wife-medicine/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4339863/husband-killed-wife-medicine/"},"headline":"Elderly Man Killed Wife Because He Couldn't Afford Her Medication, Authorities Say","datePublished":"2016-05-18T14:13:16.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T17:37:54.242Z","description":"He said that his wife had suffered from several illnesses that required numerous medications, which he could no longer afford","url":"https://time.com/4339863/husband-killed-wife-medicine/","keywords":["Crime","violence"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ali Gostanian / NBC News"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4339863/husband-killed-wife-medicine/","name":"Elderly Man Killed Wife Because He Couldn't Afford Her Medication, Authorities Say"}}]}] ```