{"id":167898,"date":"2026-02-25T02:41:21","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T02:41:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/167898\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T02:41:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T02:41:21","slug":"elderly-florida-man-accused-of-killing-dementia-stricken-wife-said-hed-rather-go-to-prison-than-care-for-her","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/167898\/","title":{"rendered":"Elderly Florida man accused of killing dementia-stricken wife said he&#8217;d &#8216;rather go to prison&#8217; than care for her"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A cold-hearted Florida man allegedly gunned down his 83-year-old dementia-stricken wife in their home \u2013 telling police rotting in prison would be easier than caring for her, authorities said.<\/p>\n<p>William Elwood Simmons, 80, was arrested and hit with a first-degree murder charge after shooting his wife, Nancy, dead in the kitchen of their Orlando home while arguing about a cruise around 5:15 p.m. Saturday, the Orange County Sheriff\u2019s Office said,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox35orlando.com\/news\/florida-man-arrested-wifes-murder-after-arguing-about-vacation-affidavit\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> according to Fox 35.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>When police arrived, they found the woman face down in the kitchen with blood streaming from her head.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:0.77441406;display:block\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38594119\" width=\"457\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/william-elwood-simmons-80-charged-122136027.jpg\" alt=\"Mugshot of William Elwood Simmons, an 80-year-old white man with long gray hair and a mustache, wearing a black shirt.\" class=\"wp-image-38594119\"  \/>William Elwood Simmons, 80, was arrested and hit with a first-degree murder charge after shooting his wife, Nancy, dead in the kitchen of their Orlando home. Orange County Sheriff<\/p>\n<p>Asked by cops if he knew what happened, Simmons chillingly admitted, \u201cI do know what happened, I did it,\u201d an arrest affidavit obtained by the outlet shows.<\/p>\n<p>The heartless husband allegedly told deputies he and his sick wife were bickering when he fetched a shotgun from the bedroom, returned and fired the single shot \u2013 claiming he was fed up with her dementia, missed the woman she once was, and \u201cwould rather go to prison than deal with her.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38594118\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/39175683.jpg\" alt=\"A person holding an MRI film showing sagittal views of the brain with frontal lobe atrophy, likely indicating frontotemporal dementia.\" class=\"wp-image-38594118\"  \/>The slain wife was pronounced dead at the scene, with the gun and one spent round recovered nearby. Atthapon \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n<p>Simmons assured authorities he wasn\u2019t under the influence and wasn\u2019t under attack when he fired the deadly blow, the outlet reported.<\/p>\n<p>The slain wife was pronounced dead at the scene. Cops recovered the gun and one spent round nearby.<\/p>\n<p>Simmons, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wftv.com\/news\/local\/orange-county\/ex-police-officer-denied-bail-fatal-shooting-wife\/SBGPSEKUPZFR7F7TIP4SQZN2QE\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">a former cop<\/a>, was charged with first-degree murder using a firearm, jail records show.<\/p>\n<p>He is being held without bail at Orange County Jail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A cold-hearted Florida man allegedly gunned down his 83-year-old dementia-stricken wife in their home \u2013 telling police rotting&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[692,23160,5713,28,30,29,4538,6889,4278],"class_list":{"0":"post-167898","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-arrest","9":"tag-dementia","10":"tag-domestic-violence","11":"tag-florida","12":"tag-florida-headlines","13":"tag-florida-news","14":"tag-murders","15":"tag-shootings","16":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}