Florida Sisters Arrested In Murder Of 85-Year-Old Father After He Refused To Enter Assisted Living

PINELLAS COUNTY, FL. (THECOUNT) — Mary-Beth Tomaselli, and her sister, Linda Roberts, have been identified as the Florida women arrested Tuesday in the murder of their 85-year-old father four years ago.

According to reports, Tomaselli, 63, and Roberts, 62, were arrested on Tuesday by Pinellas County Sheriff’s who say the woman “euthanized” their father after he refused to go into assisted living.

The sisters reportedly confessed to the killing of their father, Anthony Tomaselli, four years ago, after initially claiming he had passed away of natural causes.

During a police interview, the women admitted to “euthanizing” their father after he had fallen ill and refused to enter “an assisted living facility.”

“They knew he would die sometime in the next couple of months, so they decided to euthanize him,” an officer investigating the case noted.

The woman reportedly planned the grisly killing, mixing “an excessive amount” of sleeping pills with alcohol and feeding it to their very much alive father in hopes the toxic brew would kill him. It didn’t, So Roberts attempted to suffocate him with a pillow.

When suffocation failed, Roberts stuffed a rag down the senior’s throat as Tomaselli “pinched his nose close.”

The elderly gentleman eventually stopped breathing, a police official told reporters.

In addition to killing their father, they also administered sleeping pills to Anthony Tomaselli’s granddaughter, so that she would sleep through the brutal killing of her grandfather.

Following this despicable act, the women sold their father’s home and belongings and split the profits.

Both sisters are currently being held without bond and will be charged with murder in the first degree, according to Amomama.

Geo quick facts: Pinellas County is a county located in the state of Florida. As of the 2010 census, the population was 916,542. The county is part of the Tampa–St. Petersburg–Clearwater, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. Clearwater is the county seat, and St. Petersburg is the largest city – Wikipedia.