PALM SPRINGS, Fla. (AP) — A 61-year-old Florida woman is accused of stabbing her physically disabled husband more than 140 times and hitting him on the head with a meat cleaver to make sure he was dead.
Joan Burke was arrested Sunday and charged with first-degree murder, according to Palm Springs police. No motive was announced.
Melvin Weller’s stepson found his body in a pool of blood on the couple’s kitchen floor on Feb. 11. A bloody knife and meat cleaver were in the sink and blood was splattered throughout the room, a police report said.
Burke was found in a bedroom with cuts to both of her palms, news outlets reported.
“It is very common for the offender to have lacerations to the palm of one or both hands when he or she stabs another person,” the police report said.
The medical examiner’s report said Weller had stab wounds all over his body.
A lawyer for Burke was not listed in records of her booking into the Palm Beach County Jail.
“He was always pretty friendly if he passed by, and if me and my dad were outside he would just wave to us,” Isabella Jaramillo told WPTV. “It’s crazy to think that somebody could do that to somebody else.”