Killing stresses issue of elder abuse

Woman allegedly choked to death during physical dispute

MALTA >>>> The murder of 65-year-old Kathleen Wilkinson, who was choked to death allegedly at the hands of her husband, is the second Saratoga County homicide in less than a year that was tied to elder abuse. The fifirst was a murder-suicide on Saratoga Lake.

Elder abuse is typically characterized as the abuse of individuals aged 60 or over, according to Maggie Fronk, executive director of Domestic Violence and Rape Crisis Services of Saratoga County. The abusers range from spouses, children and other family members or hired caretakers and the abuse itself can encompass physical, emotional,

fifinancial abuse, as well as neglect or self-neglect. “The story is, you never know what’s going on behind closed doors,” Saratoga County District Attorney James A. Murphy III said. “No one ever says, ‘I knew he was going to kill her.’”

That statement apparently held true for the Wilkinson household in Malta, where the alleged homicide was discovered Sunday morning. The accused killer, 69-year-old Charles Wilkinson, had spent several days with his wife’s dead body. Kathleen Wilkinson’s death, investigators said, occurred during a domestic dispute that turned physical.

Murphy said the Wilkinsons, according to their neighbors, appeared to be a normal married couple. There are no records of domestic disputes or arrests stemming from the residence on file at local lawenforcement agencies.

However, just because a prior history of domestic issues is undocumented doesn’t mean it isn’t there.

“People are good at hiding what’s going on,” Murphy said.

The welfare check on Kathleen Wilkinson was initiated by the couple’s son, who lives in Boston, where their daughter also lives. According to the sheriff, a local relative alerted the son to her concern after was unable to reach Wilkinson for a day or two.

Whether it was unusual to request a welfare check after such a brief period of time, Murphy said, is dependant on the nature of the re- lationship.

“For this particular situation, it was consistent with the relationship they had,” he said.

Murphy recommended keeping a watchful eye on the people taking care of elderly loved ones, especially when it comes to their fifinancial accounts.

In elder abuse, generation gaps can play a role, Fronk said, including the belief that domestic affffffffffffairs are private and shouldn’t be spoken of outside the home and dependencies in the re- lationship in order to fulfifill basic needs.

Fronk said the DVRC understands the special obstacles their older clients encounter when they are exiting an abusive relationship and they have resources to aid the transition, like housing and financial assistance, guidance on living alone for the first time and how to deal with push back from friends or family members.

Another issue often tied to elder abuse can be a deterioration of cognitive functions that escalate or are precipitated by abuse, Fronk said. It can be confusing to grapple with new abuse from a loved one.

Fronk said her crisis center is not just for primary victims, but also the secondary victims. She urged people who are concerned about the welfare of another person to call the DVRC hotline at 518-584-8188.

Domestic violence, Murphy said, is one of the most under-reported crimes and that there are hundreds of domestic violence cases pending in his office, and while many of them are relatively minor, they all have the propensity to escalate.

Which is why, Murphy said, he thinks of his offiffice as a type of homicide prevention unit.

“If we can stop behavior early on and recognize it for what it is — domestic violence — and protect the victim and identify it and hold the abuser responsible and have him recognize what he’s doing, then maybe we have saved a life in the long run,” Murphy said.