98 year old Laura Lundquist shared a room with 100 year old Elizabeth Barrow at the Brandon Woods Nursing Home in Dartmouth, Mass. The two women fought often over such pettiness as shared items in the room and who should have the bed by the window. One night things got a bit overheated and nursing home attendants found Elizabeth Barrow dead in her bed, with an autopsy determining that she was the victim of strangulation and suffocation. Now, 98 year old Laura Lundquist is being charged with murder.
“The investigation revealed that the defendant harbored hostility towards the victim because she believed the victim, Ms. Barrow, was taking over the room they shared at the nursing home. The defendant made statements prior to the victim’s death that she would get the victims bed eventually, by the window, because she was going to outlive her,” said District Attorney Samuel Sutter in a news conference. The DA added that Lundquist killed Barrow by strangling and suffocating her by placing a bag over her head which was discovered by police.
According to Sutter, the two women had quarreled the night before Barrow’s death because a table Lundquist had placed at the foot of the victim’s bed was blocking her access to the bathroom. “When the nurse moved the table from the location, Ms. Lundquist, the defendant, assaulted her by punching her. She stated at that time, Ms. Lundquist that is, that ‘She [Barrow] might as well have the whole room,'” Sutter said.
District Attorney Sutter wrestled with whether he should bring murder charges against a 98-year-old woman, but in the end, believes it is the right thing to do. The defendant has a history of paranoia and dementia, so the murder could not have been premeditated, a prerequisite for a first degree murder charge. “We’re confident those were the right decisions. They were made after great thought and great deliberation.
