Two newly released autopsies reveal why an elderly husband may have murdered his aging wife before killing himself.
William and Rose Welch, 77 and 72 respectively, were both found dead in separate recliners in their La Mesa home in the 6900 block of Wyoming Avenue.
The victim of homicide, Rose’s cause of death was blunt force trauma to her head, though a contributing factor was asphyxia due to a plastic bag wrapped around her head, the autopsy states.
Blood spatter was spotted on the ground and on the Mickey Mouse phone near the recliner, the investigator noted in the San Diego County Medical Examiner’s report. William, whose death was a suicide, died from morphine intoxication.
The couple’s daughter, Wendy Owen, reported their deaths on Oct. 14, but according to the autopsy, she knew her mother had died before that.
When La Mesa police and the medical examiner first arrived, Owen and her boyfriend, George Runer, obtained a lawyer and did not want to talk about the Welchs’ deaths.
An email sent from a police detective to the medical examiner five days later explained why. According to the report, Owen and Runer had visited the Welchs’ home on Oct. 12, and during that visit, William told them he had “tapped” his wife with a dumbbell and put a bag over her head to “finish her off.”
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He said he was not an expert at this and did not want his wife to wake up again, according to police. William lived with his wife’s body for days after her death, investigators said. It’s unclear how long Owen waited to go check on her parents.
Owen told police that Rose’s arthritis had gotten worse in recent years and she had suggested going to Oregon to “end it,” referring to the state’s law allowing terminally ill patients to legally end their lives.
