Melvin Weller, 62, according to court records, filed for divorce from his longtime wife Joan Burke in late December.
Burke is now facing murder charges in connection with what police described as a “violent struggle” involving large knives and a meat cleaver, WPBF reported.
On Feb. 11, Palm Springs police responded to a 911 call from Weller’s stepson and found him in a pool of blood covering more than half the kitchen floor with “several stab wounds and lacerations on his body,” according to the arrest affidavit.
An autopsy found that Weller had been stabbed 140 times and had a skull fracture from a butcher cleaver strike to the right rear of his head.
Police found a bloodied garbage can near his feet, along with bloodied cleaning utensils.
A bloodied nightgown was found in a garbage bag beside the body.
Joan Burke, Weller’s 61-year-old wife, was found bleeding from her hands and silent in the bedroom. Cuts are common among stab wound offenders, police say, since the weapon’s blade becomes slippery, slipping and digging into the skin.
Weller’s divorce was being handled by attorney Nicole Hamil-Scott.
She mentions one likely point of contention: supposedly millions of dollars in real estate that under Florida law, would have to be divided. She says she had just had a meeting outlining some of the terms with Burke’s lawyer a week before the murder.
“That could be one of the reasons… under Florida statute, whenever there are marital assets pursuant to the Florida law those marital assets would need to be equitably divided between the parties and certainly without getting too much into attorney-client privilege, the parties had substantial assets between themselves,” Hamil-Scott said.
Weller was reportedly disabled and had difficulty walking, according to police.
Burke remains behind bars on murder charges in Palm Beach County.
