Minnesota man calmly confessed to police officers that he had killed his grandmother because she blew her nose at dinner, according to authorities.
Timothy Robert Steele, 35, has been charged with murder in the second degree after the death of his grandmother Agnes Wagner-Steele on October 15.
When officers arrived at the family’s home in Farmington at around 11.45pm, Steele told investigators that he attacked the 84-year-old because he believed she had caused a hole in one of his jackets.
According to the criminal complaint filed in Dakota County, officers found a ‘calm and collected’ Steele sitting on the coach at the home that he shared with his grandmother and mother Diane.
Officers found the woman, who had lived in the house in the 600 block of Linden Street for 50 years, dead in the upstairs bedroom.
When they asked Steele what had happened that evening, he replied: ‘I killed my grandmother.’
After being read his rights, Steele said he ‘became fixated on the feeling of mucus in his mouth and could smell mucus because the victim had blown her nose at dinner’
He said he heard voices in his head and believed that if he killed the victim, the feeling would go away.
After dinner, the victim - who suffered from dementia, diabetes and early signs of kidney failure - had gone up to her bedroom.
Steele said he followed her into the room and contemplated for a moment if he could go through with killing her – and without saying a word, hit her with a hammer seven or eight times in the head.
RELATED ARTICLES
Previous
1
Next
Desperate search underway for 67-year-old man swept away in...
FILE - In this Monday, Sept. 21, 2015, file photo, Rachelle Dee Bond is arraigned on charges of acting after the fact in helping to dispose of the body of her daughter, the girl dubbed Baby Doe, in Dorchester District Court in Boston. Bond is scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday, Oct. 20. (Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe via AP, Pool, File) Baby Doe's mother and boyfriend appear in court for hearing...
Share this article
Share
He then reported going back downstairs and telling his mother Diane that he was going out for cigarettes and voices in his head told him he was a ‘terrible criminal’.
When he returned, he told his mother he had killed the victim – and said he decided to find a gun to kill himself.
His mother agreed to drive him around in a bid to calm him down and after driving around for up to an hour, she had convinced him not to.
The statement added that Steele’s mother convinced him to return to the house and call 911.
Diane Steele told FOX9 that the killing must have occurred after her mother had gone up to bed shortly after the family had dinner and watched some television between 7pm and 8pm.
She said her son, who has had problems with his mental health and chemical dependency for years, came into her bedroom at around 10pm.
'He said, ‘I need to talk to you mom,’ she said. 'I turned on the light. What happened? He said, ‘I killed granny'.'
She then said she had to hesitate before calling the police for fear of her son's reaction.
'If I would have started reacting hysterically, I’m sure he would have grabbed the phone from me, and who knows what he would have did to me,' she said.
Farmington Police Chief Brian Lindquist told CBS Minnesota it was Steele’s mother who called police just before midnight on Thursday.
He said the case is the city’s first homicide since 1972.
Neighbors were in shock at hearing of the death of Wagner-Steele.
They told CBS that Wagner-Steele had been a patient at a nursing home in the area but would occasionally return home with her daughter.
Lindquist added that Steele surrendered peacefully to officers – and added that police have visited the home before, but did not say why.
Steele is in custody on $750,000 bail and is facing up to 40 years in prison if convicted, according to The Smoking Gun.
He has a lengthy criminal record with numerous arrests and criminal charges dating back to 1998.
Steele has served jail time for three convictions for terroristic threats and burglary charges. He entered prison for all three sentences in November 2001.
Read more:
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3281269/I-killed-grandmother-Minnesota-man-charged-murder-calmly-telling-police-bludgeoned-84-year-old-death-blew-nose-dinner.html#ixzz3pCRpVTbR Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
