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Affidavit: Lakewood man charged in wife's murder told police she had terminal cancer and wanted to die

Bruce Bagwell has been formally charged in the of shooting and killing of his wife, Teresa Bagwell.
Credit: Office of the District Attorney - Jefferson and Gilpin Counties
Bruce Bagwell - Charged with First Degree Murder of his wife

LAKEWOOD, Colo. — The man accused of fatally shooting his wife of 37 years inside of their Lakewood apartment told police that she had terminal cancer and repeatedly told him she wanted to die. 

Bruce Bagwell, 60, has since been charged with two counts of first-degree murder after deliberation in connection with his wife Teresa Bagwell's death. 

Teresa Bagwell was found dead inside the couple's apartment in the 9800 block of West 26th Avenue the afternoon of Feb. 6, according to an arrest affidavit released by Lakewood police on Friday. 

Officers were called to the home by Teresa Bagwell's father, who said he had called his daughter and her husband answered instead. According to the affidavit, Bruce Bagwell told his father-in-law that he had shot his wife with a shotgun and she was dead. 

"Bruce said Teresa begged him to kill her," the affidavit reads. 

Investigators said Bruce Bagwell claimed Teresa Bagwell had been diagnosed with terminal cancer in her lungs and brain a month before her death, according to the affidavit. He alleged that her condition had rapidly deteriorated and that she needed a wheelchair. 

According to the affidavit, Bruce Bagwell claimed his wife repeatedly asked him to kill her. He told officers he had originally planned to kill her in a field, but that plan could not work due to her physical limitations. 

So, according to the affidavit, the day of his wife's death, Bruce Bagwell told police he went and got them both breakfast and had two beers and two shots. Investigators said Bruce Bagwell told them he brought a shotgun into the apartment and sat on the couch behind his wife and shot her in the back of the head. 

"He said it was apparent that it did not do the job and shot her again in the back," according to the affidavit. "After a minute or so he shot Teresa for a third time in the chest." 

Investigators also spoke to the couple's roommate, according to the affidavit. That woman told police that she had never heard Teresa Bagwell ask her husband to kill her, and that Bruce Bagwell was a heavy drinker. 

When officers interviewed him, they wrote in the affidavit that his breath smelled like alcohol and he "also had twitching and scratching mannerisms consistent with methamphetamine use." 

A preliminary hearing in the case has been set for May 3 at 8:30 a.m.

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