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March 12, 2010 7:30 AM
LINDELL KAY
An elderly Maysville man accused of killing his 80-year-old wife Tuesday night at a Jacksonville Alzheimer center before shooting himself was inching closer to death late Thursday, authorities said.
Curtiss J. Hargrove, 80, who is in critical condition on life support with a do not resuscitate order at New Hanover Regional Medical Center, left family instructions on what to do after his and his wife’s death, Onslow County Sheriff Ed Brown said Thursday.
Harriett Hargrove died of gunshot wounds to the head, the Onslow County Medical Examiner’s Office said Thursday. Her manner of death is listed as homicide on her death certificate. The District Attorney’s Office is waiting to see whether Hargrove improves before considering whether charges will be brought against him.
“It is truly tragic it had to end like this for her and maybe for him too,” said Dewey Hudson, district attorney for the Fourth Prosecutorial District, which includes Onslow County.
Looking after a loved one with Alzheimer’s disease can be extremely taxing, said Traci Marks, the regional director of Alzheimer’s care for Liberty Healthcare Group.
“We can’t pretend to know what a spouse goes through when their husband or wife has Alzheimer’s disease,” she said, adding that caregivers try to help family realize that their inflicted loved one is not the same person they once knew.
She said some Alzheimer’s patients revert back to an earlier time in their lives and may not even recognize someone they have lived with all their adult life.
“It’s very difficult on everyone,” Marks said, adding more time and money should be invested in learning more about the cause of Alzheimer’s disease and on preventative care since there is no known cure.
Hargrove shot his wife in her room at the Alzheimer’s Related Care Community on Onslow Pines Road, according to investigators. Sheriff’s detectives recovered a small caliber handgun believed to be the weapon used in the shooting.
In a statement to the news media, staff at the Alzheimer center said the shooting was “totally unexpected” and that during Harriett Hargrove’s “stay with us, our staff was very observant of devotion between husband and wife.”
She had been a patient at the center since mid-January with her husband visiting daily.
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