News Release: Double mercy killing...shootings at nursing home? What do you think?
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Reported 12.12.13
NBC
News
A California man is in custody after two
suspected mercy killings — the shooting
of his wife at home, followed by his sister
at a nursing facility, police said.
Cops were called to the Country Villa
Sheraton Nursing Home in Los Angeles
on Wednesday morning to investigate a
report of a shooting.
When they arrived, they found 58-year-old invalid Lisa Nave dead in her bed of a
gunshot to the head, with a derringer-style revolver on the table next to her,
and her 60-year-old brother, Lance
Holger Anderson, waiting for them on the
patio.
"He gave up without any problems at all,"
said LAPD Lt. Paul Vernon, adding that
no one else at the nursing home was
threatened or hurt.
When Nave's family was notified, they
wondered what would happen to
Anderson's wife, who was also ailing,
suffering from symptoms related to
dementia, Vernon said.
"The family called the sheriff in Santa
Clarita to conduct a welfare check, and
responding deputies did find a dead
woman, presumed to be Lance’s wife,"
Vernon said.
"The assumption there is that he killed
her, then came here and killed his sister,"
Vernon told reporters outside the nursing
home.
Vernon said the double homicide
appeared to be "mercy killings at least
from his standpoint," although he added
the suspect did not use that term.
Nave had been at Country Villa since
2008. She came out of a coma four years
ago but required constant care, police
said. It's not clear what ailment
Anderson's wife had.
Regardless, said Vernon, illness "does
not justify any killings."
Nursing home staff declined to talk
about the shooting.
"Everything is safe now," said Maryvic
Corder, an employee in the home's
business office who was in the building
when it happened.
The nursing staff was informing other
patients about the incident, and sections
of the 138-bed facility were secured so
police could complete their investigation,
Corder said.
It's hard to be in that caregiver position that is "honored" but not supported. They tell us to take responsibility for ourselves, and in an awful way, he did. We don't know the details of his life, but sadly, I can imagine some of the stories we hear on this site ending in a similar tragedy. I think men find it extra hard to ask for help, and, with less help, are more likely to resort to such an act.