L.I. Woman is Charged With Strangling Husband

A Long Island woman who was married in September to a man 21 years older, 8 inches taller and 100 pounds heavier was accused yesterday of strangling him with an electrical cord in their South Shore waterfront home while her 7-year-old daughter slept in an adjacent bedroom.

In a case that left investigators puzzling over mysteries of motive and method, though not of means, the Nassau County police charged the woman, Kelly Forbes, 29, with second-degree murder in the death of her husband, Michael Forbes, 50, in Merrick, N.Y., on Wednesday morning.

An electrical cord found at the scene was the apparent murder weapon, the police said. But the most obvious question — how could a 5-foot-5, 150-pound woman strangle her 6-foot-1, 250-pound husband? — was still under investigation, said Detective Sgt. Anthony Repalone, a police spokesman.