Seal Beach Man Shoots, Kills Ailing Wife, Self

An 81-year-old man concerned over his wife’s declining health shot her to death, then turned the handgun on himself Friday morning in the carport of their Seal Beach home in Leisure World, police said.

Investigators and witnesses said Karl G. Pearson calmly walked up behind his wife of 55 years, Velma M. Pearson, 78, and shot her about 11 a.m. He then sat down and shot himself, Seal Beach police said.

The deaths shocked neighbors in the quiet, gated retirement community. Those who knew the Pearsons said they were extremely close and went daily to area shopping malls, where they enjoyed walking and eating lunch. Neighbors said Pearson loved his wife deeply, but was worried about her care should something happen to him.

Lucille Bell, who has lived next door to the couple for about four years, said Velma Pearson was a cheerful person who recently began showing signs of Alzheimer’s disease. “He was so worried about her,” Bell said. “He often said ‘I don’t know what will happen if I get sick.’ ”

As investigators cordoned off the carport on Prestwick Road, several residents were at a loss to explain what could have triggered such a violent end to the couple’s seemingly tranquil life. They said Pearson--a tall, handsome man who had worked as a sales manager for a local car dealership--was devoted to his wife. He did many of the household chores and watched her closely because she often walked unsteadily with her cane.

Though the couple was friendly and always smiled and said hello, neighbors said they mostly kept to themselves behind the shuttered blinds of the one-bedroom home where they had lived for 25 years. Only recently, Bell said, did Pearson occasionally open up about his wife’s deteriorating health. Pearson told her that his wife suffered memory lapses, and that he feared that if she took ill, nobody would care for her.

Neighbors said the couple had a son living in Los Angeles or Ventura county who visited occasionally.

Despite his concerns, Bell said Pearson kept to his routine, perhaps trying to keep things as normal as possible for his wife. That is how it seemed Friday morning. Bell said Pearson was joking around with her while she raked leaves outside her home. Then he went inside to take a call from his son. A few hours later, Bell said she heard a shot.

Bell wasn’t surprised to learn of the murder-suicide, saying the pressures and anguish over his wife’s and his own health may have overwhelmed Pearson in the end.

“Sometimes they worry so much, they just end it,” she said.