Cinnaminson man, 83, charged in wife's slaying

CINNAMINSON An 83-year-old man has been charged in the fatal stabbing of his 81-year-old wife last week in their Cinnaminson home, authorities said Wednesday.

William Coggins was arrested after he was released from a hospital for treatment of what officials described as self-inflicted knife wounds.

Coggins was charged with murder in the death of Laura Coggins, killed in their Westfield Drive home on Nov. 4, the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office said.

William Coggins' brother, whom Coggins had summoned to the couple's condo at Westfield Leas, a 55-and-over development off Route 130, called Cinnaminson police after discovering the body, officials said.

Officers arrived just after 11 a.m. and found Laura Coggins in the bathroom, fully clothed with multiple stab and slash wounds.

Investigators recovered two knives at the home.

Last week, the Prosecutor's Office said the death was "suspicious" but did not release details.

The couple had lived in the condominium since the late 1980s, according to property records. A spokesman for the Prosecutor's Office said the couple had been married for more than 50 years.

Residents of the development said the couple's son had been their caretaker until he recently died. One resident, Linda Atkinson, 58, said a niece appeared to have been caring for the couple since their son's death.

Atkinson said she recalled that Laura Coggins appeared disoriented last summer when she knocked on neighbors' doors looking for her husband. "She said he was late," Atkinson recalled.

Atkinson said Laura Coggins may have had dementia. "She didn't know where she lived," Atkinson said of their encounter in the summer.

William Coggins was treated at Cooper University Hospital for stab wounds to his torso and lacerations. He was then taken to a medical facility for a psychiatric evaluation as a condition of his bail, set at $500,000.