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Nursing Home Found Not Negligent In Murder Of 100-Year-Old Woman

BOSTON (CBS) - It's another heartbreaking blow for the family of Elizabeth Barrow after a horrible crime. "My mother's been murdered, the murderer's not accountable and the caregiver's not accountable," says her son Scott Barrow.

The 100-year-old was strangled and suffocated, found with a bag on her head allegedly at the hands of her 98-year-old roommate at Dartmouth's Brandon Wood's nursing home back in 2009. Her family filed a wrongful death suit claiming the nursing home and staff didn't do enough to protect Barrow but an arbitrator ruled they're not negligent. Barrow's lawyer, David Hoey says, "We're shocked, the nursing home's own documents show Lundquist was a harm to herself and others, it's right there in black and white."

Scott says in the hours leading up to his mother's death, Laura Lundquist had several violent episodes. The staff here left her in the room with his mother and never let him know there was a problem. Barrow is haunted every night, "The thing that wakes me up at night is thinking that if I had been called I would have taken her home."

Hoey says, "An altercation came up against staff members we believe it was addressed towards Betty Barrow by Lundquist. They were not separated, no physician was contacted, the RN for the building was not contacted. Lundquist was just put back to bed with instructions not to work herself up into a frenzy.."

By morning Elizabeth Barrow was dead but no one will be held responsible for her murder. Scott Barrow adds, "It's a series of errors all of which were preventable that led to my mother's death."

The COO for Brandon Woods would not comment on the outcome of the case. The Barrow family is filing an appeal.

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