{"id":168766,"date":"2026-02-25T15:58:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T15:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/168766\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T15:58:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T15:58:08","slug":"the-heartbreaking-reason-florida-man-80-allegedly-killed-his-wife","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/168766\/","title":{"rendered":"The heartbreaking reason Florida man, 80, allegedly killed his wife"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An elderly Florida man allegedly shot his wife dead in an argument over going on a cruise \u2014 telling cops that \u201che would rather live in prison\u201d than deal with her worsening dementia, according to an affidavit.<\/p>\n<p>William Elwood Simmons, 80, called the Orange County Sheriff\u2019s Office at 5:15 p.m. Saturday to confess to murdering his wife, Nancy, 83, at their Orlando home, according to an affidavit obtained by The Post.<\/p>\n<p>Simmons said his wife \u201cwas down\u201d and \u201cnot able to talk to anybody anymore,\u201d while he was \u201cjust sitting\u201d there awaiting officers, the affidavit states.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:0.75;display:block\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38598200\" width=\"443\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/netapps-ocfl-net-bestjail-home-122174268.jpg\" alt=\"Mugshot of William Simmons, an older man with graying hair and a mustache.\" class=\"wp-image-38598200\"  \/>William Elwood Simmons, 80, called the Orange County Sheriff\u2019s Office at 5:15 p.m. Saturday to confess to murdering his wife, Nancy, 83, at their Orlando home, according to an affidavit obtained by The Post. Orange County Sheriff&#8217;s Office<\/p>\n<p>Nancy was found on the kitchen floor with a gunshot wound to her upper body and a shotgun nearby with one spent shell casing, the affidavit states. She was pronounced dead at 6 p.m.<\/p>\n<p>Her husband \u201cstated he was guilty and he shot his wife. He confirmed they were in the kitchen arguing over going on a cruise,\u201d the arresting officer said in the affidavit.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNancy told him multiple times, \u2018f\u2013k you, you b\u2013tard,\u2019 which triggered Simmons. Simmons went into his bedroom, and into his closet to grab his shotgun. He came back to the kitchen and told Nancy he had enough and he could pull the trigger,\u201d the affidavit states.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNancy told him, \u2018f\u2013k you, you b\u2013tard,\u2019 and he pointed the shotgun at her and shot her one time,\u201d the affidavit continued.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.27363184;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38598228\" width=\"751\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/orange-county-sheriffs-office-florida-122174240.jpg\" alt=\"Orange County Sheriff's Office, Florida.\" class=\"wp-image-38598228\"  \/>Simmons said his wife \u201cwas down\u201d and \u201cnot able to talk to anybody anymore,\u201d while he was \u201cjust sitting\u201d there awaiting officers, the affidavit states. Google Maps<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSimmons stated he had dealt with her dementia for too long and stated that he loved the old Nancy, and that he would rather live in prison than to deal with her,\u201d the affidavit states.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Simmons was appointed a public defender at his request, according to an affidavit of indigency obtained by The Post.<\/p>\n<p>The Post has approached Orange County Sheriff\u2019s Office for further details about Simmons\u2019 case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An elderly Florida man allegedly shot his wife dead in an argument over going on a cruise \u2014&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168767,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4864,23160,28,30,29,4538,139,6889,4278],"class_list":{"0":"post-168766","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-arrests","9":"tag-dementia","10":"tag-florida","11":"tag-florida-headlines","12":"tag-florida-news","13":"tag-murders","14":"tag-orlando","15":"tag-shootings","16":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168766","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=168766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}