85-year-old DC man charged with killing 81-year-old wife in dispute over pancakes

An 85-year-old man has been charged with the murder of his 81-year-old wife in Washington, D.C., with prosecutors alleging he “did not want to eat the pancakes she made and stabbed her in the back.”

According to charging documents, Steven Schwartz killed his wife Sharron Schwartz on Sunday, Dec. 10 with a kitchen knife. In an interview with investigators, he said he did it over a domestic dispute regarding his eating habits.

Schwartz said following a recent stroke his ability to move and diet had changed “extensively” and his wife was trying to give him foods to help him regain weight.

On the morning of the stabbing, Schwartz said his wife was trying to feed him a pancake and that he told her he could not eat it.

He said she told him he had to eat the pancakes because she “loved him so much” and wanted him to be well.

After he said he wouldn’t eat the pancake, Schwartz said to investigators he heard a plate crashing against the wall, though didn’t know whether his wife had thrown the plate at him.

He then told investigators that he grabbed a carving knife and threatened to cut himself with it. He reported that his next memory was seeing her lying on the ground.

Sharron’s child, Steven’s stepchild, came to the house after neighbors called reporting hearing a disturbance and found Sharron on the ground.

When they asked Steven, “What did you do,” he allegedly replied, “I stabbed her and then myself,” charging documents say.