Patrick Lancaster

American abusive husband and homicide victim, he was killed by his wife, a respected physician, on Easter Sunday, April 8, 2007. A graduate of Maine Maritime Academy with a degree in marine engineering, Lancaster was a good-looking lad who pursued Ann Gryboski when they were teenagers. After they married on July 1, 1979 in Lexington, MA, he joined the Merchant Marine. For the first two years of married life, they lived in Ann Arbor, MI, where Ann earned a master's degree in public health at the University of Michigan. Their first child, Christopher, was born there. On their return to Massachusetts, Ann attended medical school with financing from her parents and she became pregnant with their second child, Daniel. Although the young couple shared a love for the outdoors, hiking, scuba-diving, and rock-climbing, his volatile temper often erupted, alienating her family and his own. He reportedly distanced himself from some of his family members. Lancaster had five siblings: three sisters and two brothers. When his wife showed up for work or for social events, she sometimes sported bruises that she tried to explain away. They were most likely evidence of his abuse. In 1994, the couple moved to Cape Cod where Lancaster could work as a marine mechanic and indulge his passions for boating and fishing. He began a business repairing diesel engines and another chartering his fishing boat. In 2001, Lancaster went to work for the Massachusetts Maritime Academy in Buzzards Bay, but was reportedly fired in the middle of the term. The reasons were not given. In the summer of 2006 he underwent hip replacement surgery. He was also experiencing some loss of hearing and was wearing a hearing aid. In September he landed a job as a senior lab technician at the US Merchant Marine Academy on Long Island, NY. Lancaster stayed in the dormitory there from Monday through Thursday and headed back to his Barnstable, MA home on Fridays. His boss complimented his work but said that at first Lancaster was “too aggressive, very impatient. He wanted things done immediately." A few months later, in February 2007, he had emergency hip surgery and was on medical leave, scheduled to return to work on Monday after Easter. On the Saturday before Easter, he and his wife were babysitting for their grandson. On their return home from shopping, he turned on his wife. As she drove, he began punching her repeatedly in the face as their two-year old grandson sat in the backseat. On Easter Sunday morning, April 8, 2007, their older son Christopher and his fiancée came to the house to pick up their baby. Christopher asked his mother how she obtained the bruises on her face. As she tried to respond, her husband threw a tape measure at her. Christopher confronted his father who then backed Christopher into the kitchen, threatening to slit his throat. When Ann tried to intervene, her husband started for her. She opened her purse and withdrew a gun that she was licensed to carry. According to testimony at the trial, Lancaster told her “You're so dead; you don't know what you started." She then shot him once but he continued to approach her. She shot him two more times, killing him. Ann then called 911. Emergency responders found her husband dead of three gunshot wounds to the side and torso, inflicted at around 12:15 PM. They also noted that she had swollen lips, blackened eyes and cuts on her face and arms. Accused of his murder, she pleaded that she shot him in self-defense after suffering years of verbal and physical abuse at his hands. On August 17, 2007, after hearing testimony from 27 people, a grand jury declined to indict her. They recognized that she had been abused psychologically, emotionally, and physically for over 20 years and ruled that her actions were indeed taken in self-defense. Prosecutors dropped all charges. Link to Astrodienst discussion forum