13 Dec 2009

Woman, 98, charged with murdering 100-year-old

6:21 am on 13 December 2009

A 98-year-old woman in the American state of Massachusetts has been charged with killing her 100-year-old roommate.

Laura Lundquist is said to have strangled and suffocated Elizabeth Barrow and now faces a charge of second-degree murder.

The women had been sharing a room at a nursing home for about a year when the death occurred, the BBC reports.

Police in Dartmouth initially believed Elizabeth Barrow had committed suicide but eventually recommended a murder charge.

A judge ordered Ms Lundquist to be placed in a local hospital to assess her fitness to stand trial.

Accused 'complained about visitors'

Ms Barrow was found with a plastic bag tied around her head in her bed at the Brandon Woods nursing home on 24 September.

Her son, Scott Barrow says that Ms Lundquist had complained to nursing home officials about the number of visitors his mother received, and had made "threatening" and "harassing" remarks to her.

He had asked for the women to be separated, he says, but had been assured the two were getting along.

The accused's lawyer, Carl Levin, says his client has a "long-standing diagnosis of dementia as well as issues of cognitive impairment".