BF2S Forums Woman, 98, charged in slay

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At 98, a Dartmouth woman yesterday became only the third woman her age to face a murder charge in the United States in more than three decades - but as America gets grayer, so will crime, one expert said.

Laura Lundquist was charged with strangling her 100-year-old nursing home roommate, Elizabeth Barrow, and smothering her with a plastic bag, apparently jealous the woman’s bed was closer to the window, court papers say.

With a history of dementia, and given her advanced age, Lundquist may never face trial, Bristol District Attorney Samuel Sutter said, adding, “This is an extremely unusual case.” Sutter and Lundquist’s lawyer filed a joint motion for a competency examination, citing dementia and paranoid fears of being strangled herself.

Northeastern University criminal justice professor James Fox, citing FBI numbers, said Lundquist is only the third woman her age or older nationally to face murder charges since 1976. Her indictment follows news a 100-year-old New York pedophile is being freed after doing his time - still considered highly dangerous because he is spry, grandfatherly and unrepentent. Fox said to look for more elderly crime as senior numbers grow.

“As the population ages, one would project that to be the case,” he said.

Court papers paint a chilling picture: Before she was killed, Barrow complained to a nurse that Lundquist had put a table at the end of her bed blocking Barrow’s way to the bathroom, documents show. Over Lundquist’s objections, the nurse moved it. Barrow was last seen getting up to use the bathroom about 6 a.m. When the nurse arrived to wake her at 6:20 a.m., Barrow was dead and the table was back to the end of the bed.

“The defendant harbored hostility . . . because she believed the victim was taking over the room,” court papers say. “The defendant made statements prior to the victim’s death that she would get the victim’s bed by the window because she was going to outlive her.”

After Barrow’s death, the nursing home moved Lundquist to another room, where she saw a plastic bag and told her new roommate, “I hope I don’t have to use that,” court records state. Lundquist was then taken to Norwood Hospital.