Margaret Kearney: Washington woman fed up with caring for terminally ill boyfriend smothers him with pillow

FLORIDA, WASHINGTON: After openly expressing her aversion to caring for her live-in boyfriend, a terminally ill cancer patient, a 69-year-old woman in Florida took his life.

Later, upon being apprehended by law enforcement, she admitted to using a pillow to suffocate the man to death.

According to official court records, Margaret A Kearney was arrested and charged with first-degree premeditated murder in connection with the death of Gary Polony.

Margaret A Kearney showed suspicious behavior

On the morning of December 20, 2023, a home health care worker, responsible for attending to Polony, discovered him lifeless within the residence he shared with Kearney. Polony was under hospice care for terminal rectal cancer at the time.

After arriving at the scene, deputies from the Pasco County Sheriff's Office reported that they "saw no concerning injuries" to Polony.

The next day, a witness came forward claiming to have been friends with Kearney for over thirty years. She said that in the days preceding Polony's death, Kearney had shown suspicious behavior and had later confessed to plotting and killing him.

The affidavit reads, “The witness also said the defendant expressed disgust with having to care for the victim, as the victim was defecating himself due to his illness and she did not wish to clean him and would wait for Hospice or a home health care nurse to clean him next time they visited,” Metro reported.

“The witness advised that on 12/20/23 at approximately 2236 hours, she received a phone call from the defendant, who told her that she smothered the victim with a pillow and he was ‘gone.’"

"The witness relayed the defendant told her she planned to cover the victim with a blanket while he was dead in bed, sleep on the couch, and when the nurse came the following day, they would assume the victim died in his sleep,” it further stated.

Margaret A Kearney placed a pillow on the victim’s face

Following the discovery, the witness engaged in a "controlled phone call" with Kearney. During this call, Kearney admitted to using a pillow to smother the victim, Polony. Police reported that she expressed feeling better about committing the act during the conversation.

In a subsequent detective interview later that day, Kearney reportedly confessed to intentionally overmedicating and causing the death of Polony. According to Law&Crime, this admission occurred on December 20, around 10:30 pm, after she was called to his bedroom to discuss her distress.

The affidavit added, “The defendant said she made a decision to lay in bed next to the victim and place a pillow on his face for a duration of up to five minutes. The defendant confirmed the victim was alive and alert when she placed the pillow on the victim’s face and was no longer breathing when she removed the pillow.”

“The defendant claimed she made the decision on her own to kill the victim in order to prevent him from being in further pain. The defendant also acknowledged that she had been intentionally over-medicating the victim with liquid morphine, in order to help with his pain.”

At present, Kearney is being detained in the Pasco County Jail without the option for bail.