Neighbors puzzled by deaths

Friday, April 9, 2004 | 11:04 a.m.

To neighbors of 69-year-old Jean A. Wilson and her son, 39-year-old Steven L. Fuoco, the apparent murder-suicide of the mobile home park residents came as a shock and remains a puzzle.

Wilson, a retired Las Vegas waitress, and Fuoco, a former janitor, were found dead in their mobile home on Magic Way near Boulder Highway and U.S. 95 about 4 a.m. on Tuesday. It appeared Wilson shot and killed her son, then fatally shot herself, Henderson Police said.

Police found an apparent suicide note inside the mobile home, but have not released the contents. Henderson officers are still investigating the deaths, spokesman Keith Paul said Thursday.

Both mother and son were in poor health and Fuoco was physically and mentally disabled, neighbors said.

Wilson had been diagnosed with cancer and her son suffered from diabetes and was on a dialysis machine, the manager of the former mobile home, Charlene Chenoweth, said.

Betty Moon and her husband, Richard, knew the mother and son for years. The Moons have lived at the mobile home park for 15 years.

Both Wilson and Fuoco played blackjack and video poker at the nearby Skyline Casino, Moon said.

"That's where I met her, sitting on a stool next to her," Moon said.

"She was a lovely woman."

Wilson's husband died about five years ago, Moon said.

Fuoco was Wilson's constant companion, caring for him day and night.

"They were inseparable," Moon said. "They were always together."

Fuoco may have been mentally retarded, but he could still figure out blackjack and video poker games, Moon said.

"He was pretty good at it, too," she said.

About a year ago, Moon said, she met Wilson coming home from a hospital, where Fuoco had been placed in an intensive care unit.

"I saw her once more, and she told me her own health was going down," Moon said.

Chenoweth, who lives four trailers away from Wilson's, said although she saw Wilson "going into her home when I was out making rounds, she kept pretty much to herself."

Chenoweth woke up at 4 a.m. Tuesday, but did not hear any gunshots or other noise from Wilson's mobile home.

As to why Wilson would take such a desparate measure, Moon said she had been thinking about the pair's situation and how worried the mother might be for the future of her son. According to their obituaries, all of their relatives lived in other states.

"My take on it is that her own physical health was going downhill at a rapid rate and there was no one to take care of Stevie," Moon said.

"It's so hard, it's a heart-wrenching decision to put him in a nursing home," she said.

Maybe Wilson didn't want to place Fuoco in an institution, Moon said. Where the gun came from, no one seems to know.

"Maybe her (late) husband owned it," she said.

Moon said she understood.

"It certainly wasn't malicious," Moon said, "because she loved that boy."