JOHNSTOWN — The Monroe Township Fire Department and the Johnstown Police Department were called to a tragic scene Friday afternoon when 70-year-old Clover Walls and her husband, Wallace Walls, 74, were found shot to death in their home at 90 Maple St.
“I lost my mom and dad today,” said the victims’ youngest son, James Walls. “This was a mercy killing. It was not murder. It was not murder-suicide. It was mercy killing,” he insisted.
Walls explained: “Two months ago my mother had a stroke. We didn’t know she had a stroke. Dad was in touch with the family. After a couple of days of Mom lying in bed and sick, we decided we needed to get her to a doctor. So Dad took her up to the practitioner who sent her to St. Ann’s just a couple of days before Thanksgiving. It took a few days, but once she was there they diagnosed that she had had a stroke. She was at St. Ann’s for a couple days, then they transferred her to Riverside where they are better equipped to take care of these things.
“Once they were satisfied that the brain was not bleeding any more and she was stable, they decided that she needed to be put into a nursing home. Her throat was paralyzed. She couldn’t talk, she couldn’t eat. Humana made an executive decision that her progress didn’t justify keeping her in the nursing home. So, Dad said he would take the commitment — this is his wife, he will take care of her. She just came home this past Monday.”
James said Clover had been prescribed anti-depressants which caused her to suffer severe anxiety and hypertension.
