LAKE OSWEGO, Ore. — A 52-year-old Lake Oswego man arrested last month for his wife’s murder told police officers that he killed her because she had terminal cancer, police said.
The Oregon State Medical Examiner performed an autopsy on 50-year-old Heidi Winchester and determined her cause of death was likely sharp force trauma. Officers found a small box cutter next to her body when they found her dead in her home on Jan. 30, according to Lake Oswego police.
Her husband, Michael Winchester, was booked into the Clackamas County Jail on one count of murder.
Police responded to a homicide/suicide call at the couple's home near Bass Lane and River Run Drive. They found Heidi Winchester dead and Michael Winchester injured.
“Officers on scene reported that Michael made a spontaneous statement, ‘I did it, I killed her, she had cancer, she’s dead upstairs’,” police said in a news release.
The Lake Oswego Review reported that Heidi Winchester's body was found face down on the bedroom floor, covered in blood. The bed and floor also had a substantial amount of blood.
Investigators found a note in the home that appeared to be from Michael Winchester to his two teenage sons. In the note, he wrote, "I could not bear to watch mom suffer anymore," according to police.
The couple’s sons were not home at the time of the alleged murder. One of the boys called 911.
Dispatchers said the teen told them his father had strangled his mother to "put her out of her misery."
