MOUNT LAUREL, NJ – Police in Mount Laurel tonight said they suspect the killing of an 82-year-old woman at the hands of her husband might be a mercy killing. Police said 84-year-old Dan Mook stabbed his wife to death, then turned the knife on himself to commit a murder-suicide, but survived his own stabbing.
Burlington County Prosecutor Scott Coffina and Mount Laurel Police Chief Stephen Riedener announced that an 84-year-old man has been charged with the death of his wife in what may have been a mercy killing, according to the preliminary investigation.
“The defendant, who is accused of fatally stabbing his 82-year-old wife, turned the knife on himself afterward, but survived,” Coffina said. “Dan Mook, 84, of Fernbrooke Lane, was charged with Murder (First Degree), Unlawful Possession of a Weapon (Third Degree) and Possession of a Weapon for an Unlawful Purpose (Fourth Degree). He was taken to Cooper University Hospital in Camden after the incident, and remains there in stable condition.”
The investigation began when officers from the Mount Laurel Police Department were called to an assisted living facility for a report of a stabbing just before 7:30 p.m. on May 15. Upon arrival, they found the suspect suffering from numerous self-inflicted cuts and stab wounds.
Coffina said Mook’s wife Sharon was deceased when she was discovered in their bedroom. An autopsy performed by Burlington County Medical Examiner Dr. Ian Hood ruled the cause of death to be multiple stab and slash wounds.
“The preliminary investigation indicated the defendant killed his wife because she was in poor health and he was concerned that she was suffering,” Coffina said.