Bucks County Husband Will Not Face Charges in Wife’s Suicide

North Penn Now Staff•

A Doylestown man will not face charges following an investigation by the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office into the suicide of his wife of 60 years.

Police were dispatched to a home in Doylestown Township during the morning of Oct. 11, where the body of an 83-year-old woman was located in the front-seat of a vehicle in the garage. Investigators said the garage door was upon their arrival, the vehicle was off, and the key fob for the vehicle was located in the front center cupholder next to the woman’s body.

According to officials, the woman began receiving hospice care in late August for terminal cancer, and her health had been in rapid decline in the weeks prior to her death. Further investigation revealed the woman only had days or weeks to live, and she had been researching doctor-assisted death options and suicide, police said.

On the day of the woman’s death, officials said her 90-year-old husband returned home after being away for several hours and heard the car running inside of the closed garage. He located his wife comatose and barely responsive inside of the vehicle, but due to her previous discussions about ending her own life, he did not shut off the engine, according to a release from the district attorney’s office.

The husband later returned to the garage and found his wife had no pulse. A medical examiner with the Bucks County Coroner’s Office later said any amount of carbon monoxide would have resulted in the woman’s death due to her "already fragile state.”

The district attorney’s office noted that aiding and/or causing a suicide is a crime under Pennsylvania law, however the investigation determined that he had neither aided nor caused the suicide.

"The husband did not have a legal requirement to attempt to save his wife,” reads a portion of the district attorney’s press release. "Under the law, he did not commit a crime. Therefore, he will not be charged criminally.”

Officials said their investigation into the incident has concluded, and the matter is now closed.