She Fights Back With Hammer : Man, 87, Held After Wife Attacked With a Cleaver

An 87-year-old man attacked his sleeping wife with a meat cleaver before dawn Monday at a retirement community in Laguna Hills, officials said.

Ellen Pellitier, 82, who fought her husband with a hammer before escaping, was listed in stable condition at Saddleback Hospital following surgery for multiple slashes on her head.

George Pellitier, described by neighbors as despondent in recent days about his health, was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, Lt. Richard J. Olson of the Sheriff’s Department said. He was listed in stable condition at UCI Medical Center in Orange. Olson said the suspect will be transferred to the hospital’s jail ward.

Pellitier struck his wife with a cleaver while she was asleep in bed at their home in the 2200 block of Via Mariposa in Laguna Hills Leisure World, Olson said.

She awakened, grabbed a nearby hammer and swung back, striking her husband twice, Olson added.

Pellitier hit his wife several more times before she pried the cleaver from his hands and fled to a neighbor for help, according to Olson, who said the motive for the attack was unclear.

The neighbor, Helen Kennedy, called paramedics at about 4:30 a.m. They arrived and were treating the victim when her husband walked into Kennedy’s home wielding knives. The paramedics wrestled him to the ground, disarmed him and held him until sheriff’s deputies arrived.

Kennedy described the Pellitiers as a “combative couple” who had lived in the retirement community for about five years. She said Pellitier “hadn’t been feeling very well, and that was bothering him.”

‘He’s Been Getting Lost’

A neighbor who lives across the street from the couple said Ellen Pellitier had been combing the neighborhood for her husband a few days ago, adding that he had been “having trouble, he’s been getting lost.”

Olson said he did not know what illnesses Pellitier may have had, but he apparently was using oxygen at his residence.

Although the Pellitiers often came to her for help, Kennedy said she did not know the couple very well. She said that Pellitier had been in good spirits Sunday, his birthday, and had called to thank her for a card.