The 100-year-old woman whose husband died in front of her during a horrifying Brooklyn home invasion robbery Wednesday refuses to believe her other half is dead, a relative said Thursday.
“She has not accepted the fact that my father has passed even though many people have already told her this,” Delroy Thompson, 68, of Florida told The Post by phone Thursday about his heartbroken stepmother, Ethlin Thompson.
Delroy, the son of the deceased man, 91-year-old Waldiman Thompson, said Ethlin keeps asking: “Where is he? When can I see him? When can I talk to my husband?”
Ethlin, who is recovering with bruises to her lip at Kings County Hospital, was inside the couple’s Bedford-Stuyvesant brownstone at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday when two thugs sneaked in and hogtied the pair.
The crooks threw a blanket over Ethlin and tied her up with a cord before moving on to Waldiman, police said.
They rummaged through the home and fled.
Law enforcement sources say surveillance footage caught the two men leaving the Decatur Street home, with one wearing a backpack and another holding the lockbox where the couple kept money.
The suspects were also caught on surveillance footage from a nearby bodega.
Cops on Wednesday night questioned and released Ethlin’s 61-year-old great-nephew, who was at the home 30 minutes before the crime, but he still remains a person of interest, sources said.
“There was no forced entry and the only other person who had a key was him,” a high-ranking police source said. “Right now, there’s no reason to arrest him.”
Delroy said he asked detectives to “grill him to the ultimate.”
“It is very suspicious to me,” Delroy said. “I am suspicious because my stepmother would always lock the doors when anyone would leave the house.”
“I think when he departed, he left the door open,” Delroy said.
Police are waiting until Ethlin is released from the hospital to do a walk-through of the home with her, sources said.
The elderly couple owned the brownstone and collected rent from three tenants in the building. They apparently had about $5,000 in the house, a high-ranking police source said.
Following the invasion, Ethlin somehow freed herself and ran out of the home calling for help, witnesses said.
Her husband of 30 years died at some point during the crime, but it was not clear how, sources said.
Delroy noted that family members, including himself, were in town the day before the home invasion for a family reunion at his sister’s house in the Bronx.
He said he tried to persuade his father and stepmother to move closer to him in Tamarac, Florida.
“My father wanted to come to Florida, but my stepmother would not accept it,” Delroy said. “She said she knows nowhere better to live than [Brooklyn].”
He also added that Ethlin had mentioned that she had lost the key to her lockbox and was planning to call a locksmith.
Meanwhile, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams announced Thursday that he’s putting up $1,000 for any information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the suspects.
“This godly and big-hearted couple suffered a truly godless and heartless attack that has struck a blow deep in the soul of Brooklyn. Their tragedy is a tragedy for us all,” Adams said in a statement.
Additional reporting by Daniel Prendergast