MEDICAL LAKE, Wash. — A 73-year-old woman was found dead on her bedroom floor after she apparently spent weeks unable to get up while her 82-year-old husband fed and cleaned her but did not summon help, authorities said.

John Klein was arrested for investigation of second-degree manslaughter after he called 911 on Monday to report that his wife, Pia, had no pulse.

"I don't consider it to be my fault," Klein told a judge at a hearing Tuesday. "She did not want help."

Bond was set at $200,000. It was not immediately known if Klein was represented by a lawyer.

Klein said his wife of 52 years fell around Thanksgiving, Spokane County sheriff's Detective Jim Dresback wrote in an affidavit.

The woman had ulcers on her hip and leg consistent with having lain on her side "for an extended period of time," the affidavit said.

According to the affidavit, Klein said he came in from working outside and found his wife lying next to the bed. He said she cried out in pain but told him to leave her alone when he tried to help her up.

He said he left her lying on her side, bringing food and water, cleaning her and giving her medication, and thought she would eventually get up on her own.

When Klein was asked whether she had asked him to summon help, "he looked down for about five or six seconds, then said, 'No,'" the detective wrote.

The type of medication he gave his wife was not specified; he did tell authorities she had no significant medical problems.

It was unclear what injury Pia Klein may have suffered in her fall. An early morning call Wednesday to the sheriff's office was not immediately returned.

Klein told Dresback the couple have a daughter in North Carolina and they talk on the phone every couple of weeks. Asked if the daughter spoke to her mother after the fall, Klein said his wife had told him to tell the daughter she was sick.


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OH my. I wonder if the husband has some mental incapacitation due to his age. Dementia...alzheimer's?

So sad. And so weird.

That's very sad, sometimes I'm afraid of getting old. You never know who's gonna be there for you.

People are absolutely insane. Her for refusing help, him for not getting it. Jeez.

On the plus side, at least she didn't spend her last few months on a toilet.

So Terrible. I feel sad for this happening to her.

Ace said:

That's what I thought of too.

Did they have intercourse during the time she spent on the floor ?

That must be mighty uncomfortable.

They must have BOTH had mental problems or something.

this is not a happy thread i need a happy thread now

I'm sorry, but this is just crazy. Where do they find these people???

This is just plain sad...everyone here jokes, but just maybe she didn't want to burden anyone with it. Maybe she was hoping to die, and just be done with it. After 52 yrs of marriage, it probably hurt this man greatly...and he was probably only doing what he thought was best. I am sorry..but I don't find death a joking matter!

MoniGram said:

i agree 100%!

MoniGram said:

I wasn't making a joke. It was so insane, I laughed. How do you just let someone lay there????

LiquidGold said:

I don't know how he could have done that...but we weren't there, so we don't know the situation. I actually feel very sorry for this man. I bet in the 52 yrs they were married, he probably would have done anything for his wife...and now she is gone,and he is being charged at the age of 82...it's sad!