Nearly five years after a woman was charged with killing her 100-year-old roommate in a Massachusetts nursing home, a second-degree murder charge is still pending against her at the age of 102.
After Lundquist was charged, Scott Picone, then the nursing home's chief of operations, said the two women had been offered room changes twice in the months before Barrow's death but both declined. He said the two women were friendly toward each other and often said "goodnight" and "I love you."
Laura Lundquist, diagnosed with dementia, was deemed incompetent to stand trial after she was charged with strangling Elizabeth Barrow, who was found in her bed with a plastic bag tied around her head.
Since then, the oldest murder defendant in the state's history has been held at a psychiatric hospital. Prosecutors say they don't expect the case to ever go to trial, but just in case, the murder charge remains on the books.
"Ms. Lundquist was deemed incompetent to stand trial, and we are told that is unlikely to change," Miliote said. "However, the court is updated on her competency every three months ... and if her competency to stand trial should change, the matter would move forward in the courts."
The Massachusetts Appeals Court heard arguments in the case in April and is expected to rule soon on whether it can go to trial.
Lundquist, in her paranoia, believed Elizabeth Barrow was trying to take over the room they shared at the nursing home, Sutter said after she was indicted. Lundquist told Barrow she would soon get her bed by the window because she would outlive her, he said.
Scott Barrow said he had asked nursing home staff to separate his mother and Lundquist, but they assured him the two were getting along. He said his mother did not want to leave the room because she and her husband had lived there together before he died in 2007.
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