An enraged husband fatally shot his longtime wife and then turned the gun on himself in an apparent murder-suicide on Long Island Thursday morning, police said.
Cops found tugboat operator William Clifford, 73, with a gunshot wound to the head in his driveway and a gun lying at his feet in Islip around 6:30 a.m., according to officials.
Police were called to the Islip home after sanitation workers discovered William Clifford dead on his lawn. Dennis A. ClarkMoments earlier, a garbage truck driver — who was trained in CPR — spotted him, “examined the body, determined he was beyond help [and] called 911 operators,” Suffolk County Police Homicide Squad Detective Lt. Kevin Beyrer told reporters.
Inside the four-bedroom home on Parsons Landing and St. Marks Lane, cops found his wife, Eileen Clifford, 68, dead in a pool of blood.
Police found Eileen Clifford dead in a pool of blood Thursday. thekiwiclub.orgBeyrer said the doomed couple was married “for a number of years” and “neighbors described them as very nice.”
The gun was registered to William, and cops were never called to the home before.
William had been working as a tugboat operator in Manhattan, Beyrery said.
His wife was a former American Airlines flight attendant and the chapter president of the Kiwi Club of Long Island, an organization for current and former flight attendants.
Eileen received numerous accolades for volunteer work, including a presidential volunteer service award given by former President George W. Bush and a recognition letter in 2007 signed by Hillary Clinton, according to the Kiwi Club website.
She called her husband “wonderful” in a bio.
“After graduating from college, American Airlines hired and transferred me to New York, where I have lived since I left home. My appetite to learn, grow and be involved is continuous,” she wrote.
“Today, volunteering with numerous groups and living an engaging life with my dear, wonderful husband Bill keeps me fulfilled, busy and alive!”
Meanwhile, nearby residents were startled to see swarms of cops in their sleepy, tree-lined neighborhood Thursday morning.
Beyrer said that the couple was married “for a number of years.” Getty Images
Clifford fatally shot his wife before turning the gun on himself, cops said. Dennis A. Clark“I’m shocked and surprised because we don’t have anything happen here,” a neighbor told News 12 Long Island. “It’s a very quiet, sleepy little town where nothing ever happens.”
