Ohio woman admits drowning 93-year-old grandmother in sink, gets life in prison

EATON, Ohio — A southwest Ohio woman who admitted to drowning her 93-year-old grandmother in a kitchen sink was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison.

Preble County Common Pleas Court Judge Stephen Bruns ruled that Heidi Matheny, 35, of Eaton, will be eligible for parole after serving 15 years under mandatory sentencing guidelines, according to court records. Matheny pleaded guilty to a charge of murder on March 3.

WXIX Channel 19 reports that in November, Matheny’s grandmother, Alice Matheny, was washing dishes in her apartment when her granddaughter drowned her in the soapy water. The Journal-News reports Heidi Matheny, unsure her grandmother was dead, then dragged her body to a bathtub and held her underwater for about 15 minutes.

Heidi Matheny then climbed out a bathroom window of the apartment and surrendered to police less than two hours later, admitting to officers that she had drowned her grandmother, the Journal-News reports.

“I just lost my s---. It’s nothing that she did. She’s not, she’s a perfect freaking grandma,” Matheny told police, according to WXIX.

Gracita Hubler, the lawyer for Matheny, wrote in court documents prior to sentencing that Matheny “snapped” because of the pressure of having to care for her grandmother. Matheny, whom Hubler wrote has a long history of mental illness, “had an increasingly difficult time listening to her grandmother lament about the stress caused by family arguing over financial issues and other concerns.”

“It appears that this pressure/stress, coupled with her mental illness(es), resulted in the unthinkable,” Hubler wrote

The Journal-News reports family members were in the courtroom for Matheny’s sentencing but they did not speak.

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