Slaying Shatters Love Story, The Herald, "Motive"

Tired, frustrated and unable to face the remaining years of his life alone, Gustave Hartner made the decision to shoot his wife, execution style, in the back of the head. After performing this gruesome task, Hartner attempted to take his own life by ingesting an overdose of pills and alerting a neighbor for help. Gustov Hartner, age 73, was the main caregiver for his wife, 90 year old Mildred Harnter. According to the article that appeared in The Herald on Friday, November 21, reporter Tonya Graham describes a man who was attentive to his wife’s every need. Neighbors said that daily Gustave would go through the routine of tenderly dressing his wife and applying makeup to her face. It appears from the article that the 90 year old Mrs. Hartner suffered from some sort of dementia and was unable to care for herself. Tired and frustrated, Gustave had placed his wife in a nursing home several times but, unable to face life with out her, he would always bring her back home. The two of them would have moved to an assisted living facility together but no double rooms were available. Neighbors said that, in spite of suicide threats and threats against his wife six months earlier that Mr. Hartner loved his wife and that she was everything to him. One witness reports that the elderly gentleman would cry when talking about his wife stating that he couldn’t go on with out her.

I chose this article because I was fascinated by the possible motivation behind Mr. Gustave Hartner’s actions. What were Mr. Hartners sources of Motivation? According to chapter 8, page 298, Human Motivations stems from 4 main sources: Biological factors such as such as the need for food and water; emotional factors such as fear, panic, love; cognitive motivators such as a persons perceptions of the world concerning beliefs on what they can do, and finially motivation can stem from social factors such as the influence of others. There is no doubt that Mr. Hartner had at least 3 of these motivators when executing his wife. Fear, love, dread, his inability to care for his wife or to live with out her (what he could or could not do) and his biological need for sleep.

It is apparent, based on eyewitness accounts, that Hartner loved his wife very much, and that over the past few months, he had been tired, frustrated, conflicted, helpless and depressed. I have had years of experience with people suffering from Dementia and know the turmoil that this condition places on families, especially a spouse. Often times the healthier spouse of a loved one suffering from dementia feels trapped and has an overwhelming sense of doom. They can not physically take care of the ailing spouse nor can they live without them. Knowing that the end of their lives are close at hand and that the condition will only get worse, over 93% experience deep depression and suicidal thoughts. This was Mr. Hartners motivation when he shot his wife, execution style in the back of the head and then tried to kill himself. In my opinion Hartner called for neighbors before passing out from the overdose he had taken because he didn’t want he and his wife’s bodies to lie unattended. Based on his actions, he believed that he would be dead before help could save them. I chose this article because I believe that everyone has the right to live and die with dignity, understanding of this basic human need is important for all of us to master if we are to treat our elders with the respect they deserve.