Vacaville Man Charged With Helping Mother Commit Suicide In Storage Locker
VACAVILLE (CBS13) — Diane Capitanich was living in pain. So she and her son Eric devised a plan to end her life, explained Vacaville police on Thursday.
Eric Capitanich, 43, of Fairfield was arrested and charged with assisting in his mothers suicide.
According to Lt. Matt Lydon with the Vacaville Police Department, Eric Capitanich called the police on Dec. 7 to report his 69-year-old mother was dead from a single gunshot wound to the head. She had been inside of a storage unit at Peabody Self Storage for roughly two weeks.
"It was a well thought out plan," said Lydon.
Lydon says they found hand written notes from both Eric and his mother that expressed her will to die and how the suicide were to take place.
Through their investigation, Lydon says they determined Eric was not at the storage unit when the shooting happened. But that he did buy the gun and teach his mother about it.
Lydon says Diane Capitanich was the one who fired the weapon, potentially with the help of a device.
"We believe that he (Eric) believed he was carrying out his mothers wishes," said Lydon.
He continued, "I've been doing this job for over two decades and I've never seen anything remotely close to this type of case."
Under California's right to die law, which was passed in June; terminally ill adults given 6 months or less to live can get a doctors prescription for aid-in-dying drugs.
Lydon says it's not clear if a doctors advice was sought by the Eric of his mother.
Eric Capitanich will be arraigned on one charge of assisting a suicide on Jan. 26. He faces a maximum of 3 years in jail and a $10,000 fine.
