'I messed up' – man shot girlfriend in head after rejected marriage proposal say police

A man from Indiana shot and killed his girlfriend just moments after she rejected his marriage proposal, police have said.

Jason Eaton, 43, allegedly told officers he approached girlfriend Wendy Sabatini with an engagement ring in the bedroom of her house in Greensburg, south-east of Indianapolis.

But she cut him off before he could propose, saying she wouldn't marry him. Eaton then grabbed a gun from a nightstand and shot the mother-of-two in the back of the head, police said.

The incident, in the 900 block of East Washington Street on Tuesday (25 October), saw Eaton flee the scene and head to a female friend's home where he told her he "messed up". He then turned himself in to police.

Meanwhile, Sabatini's son returned home from a school-related internship thinking his mother was at work, unaware she was lying dead in her bedroom upstairs. He let officers into the property who found her body and a firearm inside.

Eaton faces charges of murder charge and firearm offences. Friends gathered at a local bar on Thursday to pay tribute.

They said Sabatini had only lived in the Greensburg area for a couple of years, having moved from Logansport, north of Indianapolis.

Lora Collins, who had known Sabatini for three years, told the News and Tribune: "I couldn't even imagine something like this. It's one thing to lose a person to illness or an accident, but not to this."

Sabatini's former husband John, with whom she had two children, added: "She was also so humble and had an awesome personality, and I will always remember that laughter."