An 85-year-old man has been charged with first-degree murder after he allegedly killed his 83-year-old wife in Bridgewater, N.S.
The Bridgewater Police Service responded to a 911 call about a woman in medical distress at a home on Haven Drive around 11:40 a.m. Sunday.
“We located an elderly woman that was found deceased. We also located an elderly man that also resides in that Haven Drive residence with some injuries to himself,” confirmed Bridgewater Deputy Police Chief Danny MacPhee during a news conference Monday afternoon.
“We determined that the elderly female was a victim of an assault that led to her death.”
MacPhee said the man’s injuries appeared to have been self-inflicted. He was taken to the South Shore Regional Hospital, where he remains in custody.
Investigators say the woman’s death has been ruled a homicide and they are treating it as a case of intimate partner violence.
The accused has been identified as 85-year-old Andrew Dawson Tanner. The victim has been identified as his wife, 83-year-old Patricia Annette Tanner.
“The injured parties had been in a long-term relationship,” said the Bridgewater Police Service in a statement. “There have not been any prior documented incidents of intimate partner violence connected to these individuals.”
Police later executed a search warrant at the home. Forensics officers from the Truro Police Service assisted in processing the scene.
“The Nova Scotia Medical Examiner Service has been engaged in this ongoing investigation,” said the Bridgewater police. “Police cannot speculate on the cause of death until an autopsy is completed by this service.”
Andrew Tanner appeared before the Bridgewater provincial court remotely from hospital Monday morning.
He remains in custody and is due back in court on April 2.
The Bridgewater Police Service is asking anyone with information about the case to contact them at 902-543-2464.
‘It affects every family’
Patricia Tanner is the seventh woman allegedly killed by her partner or former partner in Nova Scotia since October.
In five of those cases, the man also killed himself.
“This is definitely something that affects every community, it affects every family, it affects every officer,” said MacPhee during Monday’s news conference.
“We’re going to disturbances or assaults or threats weekly, if not daily.”
But MacPhee also acknowledged incidents aren’t always reported because victims are often scared to speak up.
“It’s definitely one of the gaps that we found in intimate partner violence, that incidents aren’t reported or are underreported,” he said. “Victims have to be comfortable, and survivors have to be comfortable to share their story with us, share their story with the justice system, and feel that there’s going to be action.”
While there are incidents of domestic violence in the community, MacPhee said homicides are rare.
In fact, he said the community’s last homicide was in 2008, when Penny Boudreau killed her 12-year-old daughter Karissa, in a case that garnered national attention.
‘Everything seemed fine’
Neighbour Beatrice Zinck says she was with the couple the night before the incident.
“Everything seemed fine,” she said. “Her and I talked, he was doing puzzles from the crossword in the paper. When I left he said, ‘Remember, if need any help for anything, just call me and I’ll be there to help you.‘”
Zinck says she’s unable to make sense of what happened.
“I started to cry,” she said. “I hugged the lady that came and told me because she knew the family really well. I just couldn’t believe something like that would happen to people that I really loved.”
‘We need answers’
Bridgewater Mayor David Mitchell also weighed in on the incident Monday, saying he’s alarmed by the spike in intimate partner violence in the province.
“It’s heartbreaking because we can just look at the trend line of where this is going and it should be concerning to every Nova Scotian, every Canadian,” said Mitchell. “Our province isn’t immune to this, but that trend line is concerning.”
Mitchell said there are supports available in Bridgewater for people who want to leave an abusive relationship, but noted many communities don’t have adequate supports.
“But I also don’t know what supports are needed,” he said. “I think this is a very complex issue. I don’t know, if we drill down into what the root cause of this is, why is this trend going in this direction? I don’t want to speculate, but we need answers.”
In September 2024, the Nova Scotia government adopted a bill declaring domestic violence an epidemic in the province.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Callum Smith
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