A 64-year-old
Arizona man reportedly told police Saturday he stabbed his wife to death because he feared he had contracted HIV from prostitutes and given it her. The man also stabbed his adult son to death, and then failed to kill himself multiple times over the course of the next four days.
Eugene Maraventano, of Goodyear, Ariz., told a detective he killed his wife Janet, 63, with a 14-inch kitchen knife while she was asleep in their bedroom, and then killed his son Bryan, 27, according to court documents.
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"I killed my wife and I killed my son; I can't kill myself," Maraventano told a 911 dispatcher Saturday, according to court documents obtained by the Phoenix New Times.
Police arrived at the home and reportedly found Maraventano covered in blood with wounds to his chest, and the bodies of his wife and son in two separate rooms in the house. Investigators said he committed the murders four days before notifying police.
Maraventano said
his wife Janet had gotten sick recently and was undergoing tests. Because he frequented prostitutes years ago when he worked in New York, Maraventano worried he may have contracted HIV and passed it to his wife, even though it wasn't clear if he actually had the diseases.
He made the decision to kill her two weeks ago, he told police, and debated whether he should use a knife or buy a gun. He settled on the knife, even though, he said, he's "not a violent person," according to court documents.
According to the police report, Maraventano killed his son because he "plays video games all day, has no girlfriend, and must be handicap[ped] because he can't get a job."
Over the next few days, Maraventano made several suicide attempts including trying to cut his wrists, suffocating himself with a plastic bag, and putting a knife against the wall and pushing the blade into his chest.
Maraventano is facing two counts of first-degree murder.
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