Barnegat husband told police wife ‘deserved it’ after deadly fight

🚨Police say William Garvin admitted killing his estranged wife after an argument

🚨Eileen Garvin drained William's fish pond when led to a fight

🚨An affidavit details the couple's divorce and his final messages

BARNEGAT — The husband charged in the death of his wife inside their Barnegat home told police “she deserved it” when they arrived to find him with a knife sticking out of his chest and her on the floor, according to an affidavit in the case that revealed the couple had been estranged for several years.

Police went to the home of William Garvin, 67, and wife Eileen, 69, on Sept. 7 on Windward Drive in Barnegat around 4:30 p.m. following a 911 call about a loud argument, according to the affidavit obtained by New Jersey 101.5.

A person whose name was redacted let officers into the home, where they found Eileen's body on the floor. She was cold to the touch. William Garvin was sitting in a chair with a knife sticking out of his chest, according to the affidavit. After pulling the knife out, William complied with orders to put it down.

As officers walked William Garvin out the door, he shouted to his neighbors, “I killed my wife.” William later told an officer he had killed his wife around 11 a.m. after she drained his fish pond. During an “altercation,” William pushed his wife into a door. When she threatened to call police, William killed her, according to the affidavit.

Eileen's cause of death was ruled to be asphyxia by manual strangulation and smothering, and the manner of death was ruled homicide.

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William Garvin

A divorce had been filed just months earlier

The investigation found that the couple had been separated but continued to live in the same home. Eileen was a school bus driver for Barnegat public schools, while William was retired. He spent his days watching TV and maintaining the fish pond.

William did not want a divorce, but Eileen filed in July, according to investigators. The morning of Eileen's death, William had texted their daughter that the divorce was final.

Investigators later found a note from “dad and grandpa” addressed to five other individuals. He wrote that he loved everyone but was “sorry that things had to turn out this way.”

He said he had experienced “outright misery” for the past 12 years and described Eileen as a “horrible woman.”

Another message on the envelope asked for the couple to be cremated because “neither deserved a funeral.”

Eileen's funeral was Tuesday at St. Mary's Church in Barnegat.

William is being held at the Ocean County Jail, with a detention hearing scheduled for Friday on a murder charge.

Domestic violence in memory of Eileen Garvin

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