EATON — New body-worn camera footage obtained by News Center 7 through a public record request shows the moment an Eaton woman tells officers that she drowned her 93-year-old grandmother.
The video starts with the woman, identified as Heidi Matheny, 35, sitting inside the Preble County Sheriff’s Office as an officer approaches her.
Matheny sits staring ahead and crying.
The officer takes her to an interview room followed by two deputies.
“You came in on your own free, you will talk to me correct?” the officer asks Matheny.
She said yes.
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The officer asks her what happened.
“I just put her head in the sink and held it there, she fought, but I held it there until she quit blowing bubbles,” she tells the officer. “Then I drug her to the couch, she kept blowing bubbles so I put her in the bathtub until she stopped.”
The officer asks her to confirm this was her grandmother, she said yes this is her grandmother Alice Matheny.
The officer tells Heidi that even though she came on her own free will, since she is making statements admitting to a crime he is going to read her rights.
Heidi closes her eyes and scowls as the officer reads the Miranda warning.
The officer asks her what led to this.
“Nothing special,” Heidi replies.
Heidi mentions that she and Alice went to the doctor the day before where her grandmother expressed she wanted to be put in a nursing home, but Heidi said her family cannot afford that.
She also said Alice is “stressed out” and has panic attacks often.
“I’m sick of seeing her,” she said. “She shouldn’t have to live like that”
“So you decided to take her life today?” the officer asks her.
“That’s right,” Heidi replies.
“You did it by just drowning her correct?” the officer asks.
“Yes,” Heidi replies.
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Heidi explains that her grandmother wants her to sit there and listen to her every day, which she does, but it is impacting her mental health.
“I almost went with her but I can’t drown myself,” she said.
The officer then goes over the details of what Heidi told him, as Heidi confirms.
Heidi is then taken into custody.
Police went to the address given to them by Heidi and found Alice deceased in the bathtub and her body was transported to the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office for an autopsy.
Heidi has been in custody since Nov. 15, she is currently being held in a mental facility.
On Dec. 5 Heidi was indicted by a Preble County grand jury on a charge of murder. She is set to be arraigned on Dec. 9.
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