Passion crime

A 77-year-old woman was shot and killed by her husband in the popular holiday resort of Can Pastilla yesterday before the 84-year-old turned the weapon on himself - he died three hours later in Son Dureta hospital. Residents in Can Pastilla were rocked by the tragedy which police said was a crime of passion. Apparently 84-year-old Sebastian Arbona Mayol, an ex-soldier and hotelier, had been recently diagnosed with terminal cancer and fearing that he would no longer be able to care for his wife, Antonia Gelabert Llompart, who suffers from Alzheimer's disease, decided to take radical action. The Majorcan couple, who did not have any children, lived alone in a second-floor apartment on Calle Ovidio de Can Pastilla. According to police, at 9.30 am, the 092 emergency centre received a telephone call from Sebastian Mayol, saying that he had just killed his wife and that he intended to take his own life. The alarm was raised and units of firemen, police and medical teams were dispatched immediately to the scene. As the first emergency teams arrived the final gun shot went off. The door to the apartment was locked and police were let in by a cleaning woman. Inside, the husband and wife were found lying next to each other on the kitchen floor in a pool of blood. Medics tried desperately to resuscitate both of the pensioners and paramedics eventually managed to stabilise Sebastian Mayol. Police said the husband shot his wife as she sat in a chair in the kitchen and then pressed the gun to his temple and pulled the trigger. He did not die instantly because the bullet apparently entered his head at a slight angle. The retired soldier was rushed to Son Dureta hospital in Palma in a critical condition accompanied by a team of medics fighting to save his life. He died three hours later at 1pm.