Mass. woman, 98, accused of killing roommate, 100

[Starbucks Anarchist]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-12-11-nursing-home-killing_N.htm

NEW BEDFORD, Massachusetts (AP) — A 98-year-old woman was indicted Friday on a second-degree murder charge that alleges she strangled her 100-year-old nursing home roommate after making the victim's life "a living hell" because she thought the woman was "taking over the room."

Laura Lundquist was sent to a state mental hospital for a competency evaluation before her arraignment. Her defense attorney, Carl Levin, said she has a "long-standing diagnosis of dementia, as well as issues of cognitive impairment."

She is believed to be the oldest murder defendant in state history, but might never go to trial because of her mental health issues.

Her roommate at the Brandon Woods nursing home in Dartmouth, Elizabeth Barrow, was found dead in her bed Sept. 24 with a plastic bag tied around her head. Police initially speculated it was a suicide, but a medical examiner ruled it a homicide after an autopsy indicated strangulation.

[Ken Burch]

1. Why did they GIVE this woman a roommate?

You'd have thought they'd realize she should be left alone.

[rcrush]

3. Thats a lot of money

Private rooms in nursing homes can cost like $5000 a month. Medicaid wont pay for that.

[pipi_k]

2. Very very sad

When my MIL broke her hip she came to live with us for a while until we had to put her in a nursing home for about a month because she was having dementia and health issues we just couldn't deal with at that time.

She was always complaining about her roommate, accusing her of taking stuff that was mom's, etc. Same things she did to us...

anyway, one day she up and punched her roommate in the face for no apparent reason. She was 93, the roommate probably ten years younger.

There were other incidents and the nursing home ended up having to call the State Police in one night when Mom went crazy and tried to strangle one of the nurses. If Mom had been in her right mind, she would have been mortified.

Mom got shuttled back and forth between the hospital and the nursing home, and finally she came back home. It's nice to live to an old age, but damn, it can be so very cruel when the mind goes....

[Libertas1776]

4. Man, if I ever live that long

and end up going bat shit, just send me out on one of those arctic ice floes...that is if they're still around.

[goldcanyonaz]

5. I hope the nursing home gets sued. They should be monitoring the residents.

[bettyellen]

6. they need a much higher worker /patient ratio, so they use restraints in lieu of supervison

and i guess in this case they didn't use restaints.

[recoveringrepublican]

7. This is why I quit as a CNA at an assisted living place. The place I worked for

was suppose to be the best. pfft. I quit because it was just screaming for a headline "series of unfortunate events led to the death of resident".

Most of the residents really didn't, in my opinion and most of the staff, qualify for assisted living. They needed a nursing home.

I quit after one resident started barging into other residents' rooms, yelling, kicking and screaming. He may have been 75, but I could barely get him out of the room. I feared him. After that I asked for locks on all the residents doors. These locks unlock as soon as handle is turned from the inside. I had a universal key. Well the head nurse refused saying "they need to rent those". WHAT? At minimum I had 14 residents to care for, plus laundry and cleaning (I had 3rd shift). Now add 14 more if another CNA called in sick (the head RN couldn't be bothered to come in if there was no one to cover).

I won't even mention the amount of times I was concerned about a resident's health, only to be written off because I was just a CNA and they were too busy. Many times when I would come back to work the resident I was concerned for was hospitalized.

Again, this was considered one of the best places in the area (and I live in FL), yet they were bare bones staffed and paid horribly, which didn't always attract the best kind of people.

[Liberal_in_LA]

8. awful

[Generator]

9. To make it to 100 and have your cause of death be murder

Now that's a full life!

[slampoet]

10. Reminds me of the man who died in a helicopter ride his kids bought him for his 100th birthday

That would be the way to go.

[Gabi Hayes]

11. never leave home without it: