Van Nuys Man Kills Wife, Himself

A 68-year-old man killed his wife and turned the gun on himself Monday night in the couple’s Van Nuys home, Los Angeles police said.

Moments before killing himself, Benton Landers Neel telephoned a cousin in Colorado Springs and told her he had shot his wife, Dell Barbara Neel, 64, and was about to shoot himself, detectives said.

“He indicated to her that he murdered Barbara and she was dead on the floor in the kitchen,” Detective Larry Dolley said. Neel told the cousin, “He didn’t know why he did that, and since his best friend was dead, he had no reason to live,” Dolley said.

Police arrived at the home in the 16900 block of Hartland Street shortly after 9 p.m., and they found the wife dead in the kitchen and her husband dead in the bedroom.

The couple had been married 44 years.