NJ Man, 100, Could Be Oldest US Murderer

Prosecutor says he killed sleeping wife, then himself
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 7, 2015 1:36 AM CDT
NJ Man, 100, Could Be Oldest US Murderer
Authorities arrive at a home where the bodies of an elderly couple were found yesterday in Elmwood Park, NJ.   (AP Photo/Northjersey.com, Tariq Zehawi)

A century-old New Jersey man ended his long life in a horrific fashion on Sunday, killing his sleeping wife with an ax before taking his own life, according to a prosecutor in Bergen County, NJ. The bodies of Elmwood Park residents Michael Juskin and his wife Rosalia, 88, were found after a relative (who wasn't there at the time of the apparent murder-suicide) called police, the AP reports. The prosecutor says Juskin appears to have killed himself in a bathroom with a knife after killing his wife, and while the motive isn't known yet, the couple had a "history of domestic issues," the Bergen Dispatch reports.

A family member tells the Record that Juskin had dementia and "sometimes he was lucid and sometimes he wasn't." A former neighbor tells the newspaper that Rosalia, who could often be seen tending her garden, was a "very sweet lady." Police had been called to the house several times in the last few years, neighbors say. The Record also notes that Juskin may be the oldest person on record to be accused of homicide; a 102-year-old Massachusetts woman accused of killing her nursing home roommate when she was 98 was ruled unfit for trial last year. (A doctor in Indiana killed his wife and himself a few hours after their wedding.)

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