A man who was stealing money from his 88-year-old mother fatally strangled her and then tried to commit suicide in their Garden City home on Thursday night, Nassau County police said.
Garden City village police officers found Ruth Olsen dead and her 56-year-old son, James, suffering from self-inflicted slash wounds to his wrists inside their College Place home shortly after 8 p.m.
James Olsen, who is unemployed, allegedly strangled his mother with an article of clothing because he didn’t want her to find out he was stealing from her, according to Detective Lt. John Azzata, head of the Homicide Squad.
The son, who has two prior drunken-driving convictions, was taken to Nassau University Medical Center. He was ordered held without bail following a bedside arraignment on a charge of second-degree murder.
He was represented by a Legal Aid attorney.
It was not immediately clear how much money was allegedly stolen.
-With Associated Press.