Verna O'Neil, a woman from Lake Worth, Florida, died on July 23, 1987, under circumstances that were initially reported as a suicide. Verna, who was married to James O'Neil, was found with a gunshot wound to her head. At the time, James O'Neil told the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office that Verna had threatened to kill herself during an argument about her excessive drinking and a burnt dinner.
According to James, Verna grabbed a gun and pointed it at her head, and as he tried to take it away from her, the gun accidentally discharged, resulting in her death. The medical examiner ruled the manner of death as "undetermined" due to the conflicting accounts and lack of clear evidence.
For nearly three decades, the case remained closed with the official cause of death being undetermined. However, in October 2016, Sharon McGee, the daughter of Verna and James O'Neil, confronted her father about the events of that night. During this confrontation, James O'Neil admitted to his daughter that he had actually killed Verna. He confessed that during the argument, he took the gun from Verna and, in a moment of anger, said, "Let me show you how it is done," before pulling the trigger and shooting her. James asked Sharon to keep this confession a secret, but she reported it to the authorities in February 2017.
Following Sharon's report, the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office reopened the investigation. Detectives interviewed James O'Neil, who admitted to lying in his initial statements because he was afraid of getting into trouble. He maintained that the shooting was an accident, but the new confession led the medical examiner to change Verna O'Neil's manner of death from undetermined to homicide. In August 2017, James O'Neil, then 83 years old, was arrested and charged with manslaughter with a firearm. He appeared in court, where his bond was set at $50,000, and he was placed on house arrest with an ankle monitor pending trial.
The case of Verna O'Neil's death highlights the complexities and challenges in investigating domestic incidents, especially those involving conflicting testimonies and long-standing secrets. The eventual confession by James O'Neil brought some closure to the case, but it also underscored the emotional toll on the family, particularly on Sharon McGee, who had to grapple with the truth about her mother's death and her father's actions.
