Nursing home fight turns fatal in Haifa
A 90-year-old woman was killed during a fight with her 82-year-old roommate at a Haifa nursing home, surviving woman taken into custody for allegedly killing her roommate: 'They did not fight before, but they did not love each other either,' home says.
A deadly fight broke out at a nursing home in Haifa on Friday between two elderly roommates - allegedly because one of the women no longer wanted to co-inhabit in the same room. At the end of the fight, which allegedly involved the two roommates stabbing each other with a knife, one of the two, a 90-year-old elderly woman, was killed.
Her 82-year-old roommate is now the main suspect behind the 90-year-old woman's death and her lawyer claims self-defense.
"The deceased woman attacked the suspect all of a sudden when she was in her bed and stabbed her with a knife. The suspect whose life was threatened was forced to fight off the deceased in order to stop her from stabbing her (the suspect)."
According to the suspected woman's lawyer, his client is cooperating with investigators and "expresses regret at the incident."
Meanwhile, contrary to the suspect's claims that she acted in self-defense as her roommate began to spontaneously stab her, the police said they found no signs of stabbing wounds on the suspect's body. Furthermore, the police did not find any sign of a knife covered in blood at the scene of the crime.
The suspected 82-year-old woman underwent medical and psychiatric examinations overnight on Friday and was transferred afterwards to the Kishon jail.
The police are expected to request the Haifa Magistrate Court to extend the remand of the suspect on Saturday night.
The incident between the two elderly women took place at around 6:30 pm on Friday in their joint room at a nursing home in Haifa. The police are still investigating the incident and the cause of the deadly fight between the two elderly women.
According to an initial investigation, the deceased woman seems to have contested living with the 82-year-old woman at the nursing home. The victim was originally a resident of Haifa while the suspected woman is a previous resident of Kiryat Yam.
The two women lived together in a room on the first floor of the nursing home for about two months. The nursing home has been operating for almost 20 years.
Other members of the nursing home said that the two women had moved in together in December. According the nursing home community, "they did not fight but they did not love each other either."
The management of the nursing home told the police that there were no known previous incidents between the two roommates in the past. During the investigation, the suspected woman said that he roommate refused to continue living with her in the same room and it ultimately led to the deadly fight.
