Son Kills Elderly Mother With Crossbow

PALM CITY, Fla. -- A man was charged with murder after fatally shooting his elderly mother with a crossbow, officials said. Bruce Charles Neal, 42, had been fighting with his mother, 79-year-old Jean Neal, over her will, officials said. After taking a bike ride to cool down, he took a crossbow from the trunk of his car and shot a phonebook "so he could impress his mother with the power of the cross bow," according to a report by Martin County sheriff's officials. He said when she wasn't impressed, he shot her in the chest, the report said. Bruce Neal told authorities his mother walked into the kitchen before falling. He pulled out the arrow before calling 911, telling a dispatcher "it wasn't an accident," and that he was bipolar, according to the Stuart News. Officials found Jean Neal on the floor of the kitchen and a bloody arrow on the kitchen counter, according to a police report. Bruce Neal was handcuffed at the house, but he "began to cry again and asked me if his mother was dead," wrote Detective Rebecca S. Bagley in a report. Jean Neal was pronounced dead at Martin Memorial Medical Center. Ruth and Gerry Mefferd, neighbors in an upscale cul-de-sac, said Jean Neal was a retired nurse who had moved to Florida eight years ago with her husband, who died in April. Bruce Neal, an unemployed handyman, worked for neighbors, the couple said. "We all said we don't know what we'd do without him," said Ruth Mefferd, 89. "Nobody in the neighborhood understands." At a court hearing Monday, Bruce Neal was ordered held without bail.

(AP article here)