Althouse: A 98-year-old woman is charged with suffocating a 100-year-old woman to death.

December 11, 2009

A 98-year-old woman is charged with suffocating a 100-year-old woman to death.

It seems the dead one had complained that her nursing home roommate had too many visitors.

20 comments:

amba said...: See? It's never too late.; 12/11/09, 7:34 PM
vbspurs said...: I rushed here after reading this moments ago, and the story is already here!

I love this line:

When you're that age, your faculties can come and go. You can be harmless in one moment and a psychopathic murderer in the next.

That's all right. Under the new health care system, you won't be allowed to have more than one kid or to live past 70.

Cheers,
Victoria; 12/11/09, 7:34 PM
cheddar said...: In Minnesota, a demented former professional wrestler body slammed to death a 97 year old fellow home nursing home resident.

It is dangerous in there.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29534398/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/; 12/11/09, 8:12 PM
john said...: That's my guy, Verne Gagne, a real champion of 40 years ago, but now a mere shadow of his former self. Still, he was able to body slam without even thinking about it.

Which was the problem, of course.; 12/11/09, 8:23 PM
Ricardo said...: I wonder ...

Do they put a tie on the doorknob, when they are entertaining visitors at the rest home?; 12/11/09, 8:26 PM
vbspurs said...: OT/but medically related: Jane Hamsher writes a letter to the Breast Cancer Foundation requesting that donations not go to Senator Lieberman's wife, Hadassah, Global Ambassador and herself a cancer survivor. All because the Liebermans are against the public option. YIKES.

There's such hate on the Left, but no one ever mentions it.; 12/11/09, 8:27 PM
former law student said...: donations not go to Senator Lieberman's wife

As I read Hamsher's letter, she suggests firing spokeswomen whose message is at odds with their employer's. Which is reasonable, unless you want to see NRA members speaking for gun control, Cancer Society reps encouraging smoking, or Nancy Reagan switching to Just Say Yes.; 12/11/09, 8:47 PM
former law student said...: Women: can't live with 'em; can't tie a plastic bag around their heads.

Whoever doubted that was suicide was quite astute, by the way.; 12/11/09, 8:50 PM
jeff said...: "unless you want to see NRA members speaking for gun control, Cancer Society reps encouraging smoking, or Nancy Reagan switching to Just Say Yes."
NRA speaking for gun control-opposite of NRA's reason to exist.
Cancer Society reps encourages smoking-opposite core message.
Nancy Reagan saying use drugs-opposite core message.
firing Senator Lieberman's wife from breast cancer society because she is against screwing up everyones insurance, right after the "suggestion" that women dial back on mammograms - EXACTLY the same thing.; 12/11/09, 8:55 PM
blake said...: Amba,

That's one of the funniest things I've ever read. Darkest, too.; 12/11/09, 9:03 PM
Wince said...: You see what happens after they ban KY wrestling night at the old folks home: chaos.; 12/11/09, 9:10 PM
Bob said...: My own mother is in a nursing home, and has an intense dislike of her own roommate, accusing her of entertaining "boyfriends" at night (they slip in through the window, my mother says). Across the hall is a woman paralyzed from a stroke who makes loud animal noises when she is awake; another woman is called "turkey woman" because of her gobbling exclamations that can be heard along the entire wing. Other patients don't hesitate to enter rooms not their own, and the staff is less than concerned about maintaining order. So it's quite possible to understand how violence can occur.; 12/12/09, 1:58 AM
Eric said...: I hope that 1) I'm still alive at 98 and 2) I'm still capable of doing violence.; 12/12/09, 2:43 AM
vbspurs said...: OT: In other News of the Weird, an Ukrainian chemistry student was found dead at his folks' home, with his jaw blown out. He apparently had mixed his gum with explosives (??). He had the habit of dipping his gum in citric acid (???) but mistakenly dipped it into the explosive one instead.; 12/12/09, 7:21 AM
KCFleming said...: Her next roommate definitely will not have too many visitors.; 12/12/09, 7:44 AM
knox said...: Victoria, I heard about that one! Exploding jaw aside, I don't get the citric acid thing. Couldn't possibly taste good, could it?; 12/12/09, 8:06 AM
Bissage said...: With the plastic bag securely in place, it would have been the perfect crime if only Ms. Lundquist had remembered to make it look like her victim died masturbating.; 12/12/09, 8:12 AM
prairie wind said...: My first reaction to this story was to laugh but now I think it is just terribly sad. The family of the murdered woman had asked that the two women be separated but the nursing home said the two were getting along. That's sad. Either the nursing home didn't see the problem or believe what the family reported, or they had decided that Mrs. Barrows (the victim) was the least likely to cause a fuss over a bad roommate.

Old people in nursing homes are at the mercy of strangers. Sometimes that's okay, sometimes that's the best that old people without families will get, and sometimes it is criminal. I was always glad that my mom had plenty of visitors--family who could keep an eye on her care, on her roommates, on her belongings.

It takes a lot of attention, record-keeping and work by the families to make sure that nursing home care is what it should be. I haven't heard how healthcare reform (or is it insurance reform? I lose track) will affect nursing homes. It most definitely will not be good.; 12/12/09, 10:06 AM
reader_iam said...: Old people at home can also be at the mercy of strangers and, often enough, of family.

What I take from this story--as well as those ones you occasionally see about rampant sex in retirement communities etc.--is that human nature is human nature, from first gasp of breath to last.; 12/12/09, 11:06 AM
prairie wind said...: Old people at home can also be at the mercy of strangers and, often enough, of family.

True. I plan to get old anyway.; 12/12/09, 11:53 AM