An 86-year-old Nevada woman who police said was shot in her hospital bed by her husband of 63 years in an apparent murder-suicide attempt died Wednesday, authorities said.
Frances Dresser, 86, died at a Reno trauma center three days after she was shot in the chest at Carson Tahoe Regional Medical Center, the Carson City Sheriff's Office said.
Charges against her husband, William Dresser, 88, were upgraded to murder, the Carson City district attorney's office said. He remained in the Carson City jail Wednesday under suicide watch.
An arrest affidavit said William Dresser was crying and saying he'd failed to accomplish his "mission" when he was detained Sunday afternoon by Corrections Department officers who were on duty at the hospital.
Dresser, who has no previous criminal history, told investigators that Frances Dresser was in the hospital because she was paralyzed after an accident two weeks ago and that he knew she wouldn't want to continue living that way, according to the affidavit.
Dresser fired one shot into his wife's chest, but the gun jammed and broke apart when he tried to fix it, the affidavit quoted him as having told investigators. It said he told them that he'd taken four bullets with him — "two for his wife and then two for him."
