Man accused of stealing morphine from mom's IV after she dies

Chicago Sun-Times

BARNSTABLE, Mass. -(AP)- A Martha's Vineyard man is charged with taking morphine from his mother's intravenous drip minutes after she died.

Robert S. Peatie, 37, was arrested last week after a nurse at Cape Cod Hospital caught him pouring the morphine into a water bottle, the Cape Cod Times reported. His 62-year-old mother, Linda Peatie, had just died from an undisclosed illness.

The nurse, Maureen Beckler, told the newspaper she left Robert Peatie alone in the room while she sought a doctor to pronounce Linda Peatie dead.

Beckler returned to find the son "standing next to the IV stand holding the morphine bag. He was trying to pour it into a water bottle. He looked at me and said, 'I just need a minute more.'"

Police charged him with larceny of a controlled substance and possession of morphine.

"My brother is very sick," Jennifer Thompson, Peatie's sister, told the Times. She said she had forgiven her brother because that's what their mother would have wanted.