NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — 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 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.
Barrow’s son, Scott Barrow, has said Lundquist complained to the home’s officials about the number of visitors his mother received and that Lundquist made “threatening” and “harassing” remarks to her.
Bristol District Attorney Sam Sutter said Lundquist suffered from paranoia and “harbored hostility toward the victim” and thought Barrow “was taking over the room they shared.”
