An 83-year-old Venice man is facing a second-degree murder charge after a woman was found shot dead inside his home on the night of September 16. Walter Lee Edgerton III called 911 around 8:35 p.m., according to the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office, and told the dispatcher the woman was not breathing and that CPR would not help. Paramedics arrived to find her seated in a reclining chair with a blanket covering her head and upper body. She had been shot on the right side of her head and was pronounced dead at 8:47 p.m.
According to a probable cause affidavit, Edgerton later told investigators in a recorded interview that he placed a .22-caliber revolver against the right side of her head and pulled the trigger. He said the woman had chronic health problems and had recently been hospitalized at Sarasota Memorial Hospital-Venice for complications from a bleeding ulcer. The sheriff’s office has not yet released her name.
Edgerton was charged with second-degree murder, which the affidavit describes as non-premeditated, and was booked into the Sarasota County Jail early on September 17. The investigation remains ongoing. For Venice residents, a case like this raises difficult questions about elder care, illness, and firearms in the home, and how families here can find help before a crisis arrives. If you or someone you know is in crisis, the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is available by call or text.
What local resources do you think families in Sarasota County need most when they’re caring for a seriously ill loved one?
