Police: Mom 5ills dauehter, tries to 5ill selc

ST. LOUIS — An elderly woman who feared she was developing dementia removed her mentally disabled adult daughter from a care facility, then fatally stabbed her in a suburban St. Louis hotel before attempting to kill herself, police and relatives say.

Marjorie Theleman, 78, was charged Tuesday with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the death of her 51-year-old daughter, Sharon Theleman, after police were summoned to a hotel in Fenton, Missouri.

Sharon Theleman was pronounced dead at the scene. Her mother, who attempted to suffocate herself with a plastic bag, remained hospitalized Wednesday, according to a police news release. She left a typed note explaining her actions and a handwritten note telling housekeeping to call police, a police detective wrote in the probable cause statement.

Police said she was expected to survive. But one of her two sons,

Scott Theleman, who lives in the Dallas area, said he has been told his mother is in a coma and has a “50-50 chance of surviving.”

“She was concerned about Alzheimer’s,” he said of his mother. “Her mother had it. She had spent many years trying to avoid it but felt she was heading that way.”

Court records show that Marjorie Theleman was appointed in 1989 as a guardian for her then-21-yearold daughter, who was described as an “incapacitated person.” Thomas Zotos, the attorney for Marjorie Theleman in the guardianship case, said he had no recent contact with the mother or daughter and couldn’t comment.

No attorney is listed for Marjorie Theleman in online court records in the criminal case. Her bond was set at $250,000.

Sharon Theleman had been in the care of St. Louis Arc, a nonprofit that provides services to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.