90-year-old NY man charged with murdering 89-year-old wife during domestic dispute

90-year-old NY man charged with killing wife, 89

AMHERST, N.Y. — A 90-year-old man has been charged with killing his 89-year-old wife in their home in a retirement community in western New York in what police will describe only as an apparent domestic dispute.

Virginia Bunz’s body was discovered around 10:25 a.m. Sunday by a relative, who called 911. Her husband, John, was found in the apartment with self-inflicted wounds and was taken to a hospital, Amherst Assistant Police Chief Timothy Green said Tuesday.

Green would not discuss the nature of John Bunz’s injuries or provide details about how his wife died.

“It’s a domestic homicide as far as we can tell,” he said.

Bunz was arraigned at the Erie County Medical Center in Buffalo late Sunday on a charge of second-degree murder and has since been transferred to jail. He is due in town court in Amherst on Thursday for a felony hearing.

The couple lived in an apartment at the Amberleigh Retirement Community in the Buffalo suburb of Amherst. Frank Miosi, executive director of the complex, said he knew them only in passing. Amberleigh is an independent living community, he said, meaning residents care for themselves.

Miosi would not allow interviews with other residents and said he had been told little about the death.

An April 2007 item in The Buffalo News said John and Virginia Bunz celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary on April 4, 2007. It described John Bunz as a retired chemist and technician for Niagara Mohawk Power Corp.