Inset: Shelly Peca (Keizer Police Department). Background: The Oregon home where Shelly Peca allegedly killed her husband (KOIN/YouTube).
An Oregon woman allegedly decided to murder her sick and dying husband and then went on the run — with her daughter writing on Facebook that she hoped cops would "never find her" — as health issues were making the 59-year-old man "suffer," according to the daughter.
"I won't say much about this but us kids love our parents so much and we love are [sic] mom and hope she is safe and hope they never find her," Summer Peca wrote in a reply to a Facebook post mentioning the death of her father, Walter Peca, allegedly at the hands of his wife, Shelly Peca.
"My mom loved my dad more than anything else in this world," Summer Peca purportedly said about Shelly Peca, who is charged with second-degree murder.
"They were together since she was 17 years old my dad had a lot of heath issues and the doctors and the medicine they were giving my dad for over 30 years and getting is wrong was slowly killing day by day," Summer Peca also said.
The account purporting to be Summer Peca has posts dating back to 2016 and earlier that tag her mother and father in photos, and vice versa. Police in Washington state arrested Shelly Peca this week after she spent nearly two weeks on the run following the discovery of Walter Peca's body at their home in Keizer.
"When you have to watch someone you love go from happy and joyful to less than a month a not able to do anything on your own and seeing them in so much pain and no one will help you and watching them suffer and die slowly and painful than you might truly understand what's going on," Summer Peca said.
Shelly Peca, 56, was located off a U.S. Forest Service road in a remote area of Chelan County, Washington, on Tuesday. She is currently waiting to be extradited to Oregon.
Neighbors told local NBC affiliate KGW that they heard people fighting at the Peca household before Walter Peca was found dead inside on July 17. Police have not released a cause of death or details about the circumstances surrounding his death.
Detectives did not name Shelly Peca as a suspect until several days later, after beginning their search.
"She was a kind person," neighbor Sue Saxton told local CBS affiliate KOIN about Shelly Peca. "That's why all this was so shocking."
Another neighbor, who asked not to be identified, confirmed to KOIN that Walter Peca's health had been declining and he was hospitalized at least twice in the weeks leading up to his death.
"I didn't know how sick he was. I was so sorry to hear what was going on for the family," Saxton said. "They always were pleasant and kind when you talked with them, so it's just very unfortunate."
According to KOIN, Summer Peca's comments have sparked online discussion about Oregon's Death with Dignity Act, which allows certain terminally ill adults to ask for and take physician-prescribed life-ending medication legally.
KOIN asked police about Summer Peca's post, and they declined to comment.
"I can understand the daughter's point of view," Saxton said. "If it was something where she was doing what she thought was best, I mean, I just hope that the family can heal from this."