Long Island man charged with killing ill wife in failed slay-suicide plan: cops

A 74-year-old Long Island man weary of caring for his ailing wife was hit with a murder rap Sunday for stabbing her to death inside the couple’s Wantagh home, cops say.

Anthony Heaton is accused of killing his wife of 40 years in what police said was supposed to be a murder-suicide — until the suspect lost his nerve and failed to finish the grisly plan.

“Her health has been diminishing over the years, and the overwhelming stress of taking care of her and what comes with her declining health got to him,” Stephen Fitzpatrick, commanding homicide officer with the Nassau County Police Department, told News12 Long Island of Heaton.

“He couldn’t take it, and he had planned to take her life and then commit suicide,” Fitzpatrick said. “He stabbed her multiple times, strangled her, and he caused her death. He then didn’t kill himself.”

Police responded to the home during a welfare check around 11:30 a.m. Saturday and found the victim, whose name has not been released, lying dead on the floor.

Heaton was taken into custody and charged with second-degree murder, cops said.

He was awaiting arraignment in First District Court in Hempstead.

Police said there was no history of domestic violence in the home on Oakland Avenue.

“Completely shocking,” local resident Nicola Arteca told News12. “Not something we’ve ever expected to happen in a neighborhood, to happen in this neighborhood.”