Newly released footage of interrogations and 911 calls show the behind-scene logic of a murder that shocked Arizona last year.
Anna Mae Blessing, a 92-year-old woman, was arrested on July 2, 2018, for shooting Thomas Blessing, her own 72-year-old son, at their home in Fountain Hills, according to ABC affiliate KNXV.
In the newly released material, Blessing told the policeman that she was upset about Thomas’s plan to send her to an assisted living facility.
“I didn’t want to go to a nursing home and he would promise me I never would have to,” said Blessing in the footage obtained by ABC.
Her anger towards how Thomas and Julie—his girlfriend who also lived at the home—treated was revealed to be another motive behind the murder. Blessing claimed that both had been mean and had not cared for her.
During her arrest, Blessing said, “You ended my life, so I’m taking yours,” according to Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office.
According to what Blessing told Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office deputies after her arrest, she had walked into Thomas and Julie’s bedroom with two pistols concealed in her robe pockets. She then got into an argument with Thomas and pulled out one of the guns, which was fired a couple of times, killing her only son.
“I backed up and I pulled the trigger, and it broke the mirror and I don’t know what I did. Then Tom was going to come at me again so I pulled the trigger … I’m sure the second round hit him.”
After shooting Thomas, Blessing then pointed the gun at Julie. The two struggled over the revolver before Julie threw it away.
Julie then managed to call 911. In a recording of the call, Julie could be heard screaming harshly, “Help me! Help! She’s going to shoot me! She’s going to shoot me!”
According to Julie’s confession, Blessing pulled out her second gun, but she never used it.
“Then, I went to my bed and sat in the chair and waited for police to come,” confessed Blessing.
In the interrogation, Blessing confessed many times that she killed Thomas.
“I killed my own son. He was coming at me, so I fired the gun,” she said.
JUST IN: Anna Mae Blessing update: 92-year-old woman accused of killing son in Fountain Hills dies: https://t.co/HAOpp4AsxL #abc15 pic.twitter.com/6HSv4Qhevv
— ABC15 Arizona (@abc15) January 26, 2019
Blessing did not show remorse throughout an 11-hour interrogation with police. “Right now, I’m so damn tired, I don’t know,” she said. “I probably ought to be put to sleep.”
“What can I do for society?” she finally asked out loud to the detective. “I killed my son—the person I brought into this world.”
Blessing died in jail hospice on Jan. 25, weeks before she was due to stand trial in March, ABC reported. She had been charged with one count of murder in the first degree, one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and one count of kidnapping.
Barbara Blessing,Thomas’s daughter and Blessing’s only granddaughter, had told ABC15 before Blessing passed away that she believed her grandmother should have been released.
“All I want to do is get her out of that jail where she can have her dignity back and get medication she needs so she can rest in peace,” Barbara said. “She doesn’t deserve to be treated like this, she’s not well, she’s very ill.”
According to Sheriff Paul Penzone, deputies had responded to four or five calls at the Fountain Hills home before the tragedy happened.
Barbara had also told ABC15 that her father had requested that the police take Blessing’s guns away, but the answer was reportedly that she had a right to hold arms.
