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

[Nagishkaw 510]

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.

Barrow's son, Scott Barrow, has said Lundquist complained to nursing home officials about the number of visitors his mother received. He also has said Lundquist had made "threatening" and "harassing" remarks to her. He declined to comment on the indictment, which was handed up Friday by a Bristol grand jury.

Bristol District Attorney Sam Sutter said Lundquist suffered from paranoia and "harbored hostility towards the victim" and thought Barrow "was taking over the room they shared."

Sutter said Barrow complained in the weeks prior to her death that Lundquist was making her life "a living hell." The night before Barrow was killed, Lundquist put a table at the foot of her bed to block her way to the bathroom, then punched a nurses aide who removed it, he said.

Lundquist also told Barrow she would soon get her bed by the window because she would outlive her, Sutter said.

The two women had been roommates for about a year. Scott Barrow has said he asked nursing home officials to separate the women, but they assured him the two were getting along. He said his mother told him she did not want to leave her room because that's where she and her husband had lived for several years before he died in 2007.

A Superior Court judge, acting on a motion filed jointly by prosecutors and Levin, ordered Lundquist sent to Taunton State Hospital for an evaluation.

Sutter said the case likely won't ever go to trial because of the possible incompetency finding and because the defense will likely involve mental health issues, which take a long time to prosecute.

Levin said that if someone is found not competent to stand trial, the state would likely move for a civil commitment.

Prosecutors pursued second-degree murder charges because they didn't believe Lundquist had the cognitive ability to form premeditation, which must be proven in a first-degree murder case, Sutter said.

Lundquist is believed to be the oldest murder defendant in state history, Sutter said.

In a statement, the nursing home said the roommates acted like sisters, walked and ate lunch together daily and said, "Goodnight, I love you," to each other every night. The home said Barrow declined a room change in July and August.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-1...e-killing_N.htm