Matthew White, Starting Center On Penn's Final Four Team, Murdered By His Own Wife

Former University of Pennsylvania star Matthew White, best known as the basketball team’s starting center on the 1979 Final Four squad, was found dead in his home in Media, Pennsylvania on Monday. Details on what exactly happened are still fuzzy, but the victim’s wife, Maria Rey Garcia-Pellon, reportedly told police officers she stabbed her husband to death while he slept after she caught him watching underage female pornography.

According to CBS Local In Philadelphia, Garcia-Pellon allegedly went downstairs into the family kitchen a little after midnight on Monday morning to grab a glass of water and two knives. She then supposedly hid the knives underneath her side of the bed, waited for her husband to fall asleep and repeatedly stabbed him in the neck once he was defenseless. He woke up and struggled long enough to tell his wife he was dying, but he wasn’t able to call the police or seriously fight back.

Roughly twelve hours later, Garcia-Pellon went to a neighbor’s house and explained exactly what happened, prompting said neighbor to call the police. The perpetrator is currently in custody, and she has been formally charged with first degree murder. No doubt she will try to use the child pornography angle as a defense, but at this point, it’s unclear whether there’s any facts to support those claims. A source who worked alongside her told The Daily Pennsylvanian Garcia-Pellon had been battling depression recently, but at this time, it’s not clear whether that condition played any role either.

We’ll keep you updated as more facts from this troubling case come forward.