2 women in California senior-home slayings were found with plastic bags over their heads
An employee at the facility was charged with the June 4 murders and has pleaded not guilty, court records show.
The two women killed on June 24 in a Diamond Bar home for seniors were found in a bathroom with plastic bags over their heads, according to the medical examiner’s reports.
That agency’s office ruled the cause of death for Monica Lee, 75, and Hee Sook Park, 83, as asphyxia due to neck compression and suffocation.
An employee at the facility, Happy Home Care For Elderly, 41-year-old Jianchun Li, was charged with the June 4 murders and has pleaded not guilty, court records show.
Detectives haven’t revealed a possible motive behind the slayings, which happened at the residential care facility for seniors at 23801 Sapphire Canyon Road.
The case’s prosecutor, Michael Matoba, declined to comment on the case. Li’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Ivonne DeLaCruz, did not return phone calls seeking comment.
David Simpson, an investigator with the medical examiner’s office, talked with sheriff’s Detective Brown at the scene for his report.
The detective told Simpson that the owner of the facility apparently arrived that morning and talked to the on-duty caretaker who allegedly said, “I think I have done something bad” and said he had killed two residents.
The owner called 911.
Lee and Park were in a bathroom to the rear of the property with plastic bags over their heads that were secured with tape around their necks, according to the report. They were pronounced dead at the scene.
Simpson described seeing several plastic bags, a roll of electrical tape, a belt and an extension cord on the bathroom floor.
The toxicology test for Park detected three medications; one is used to treat dementia. A relative of Park’s told Simpson that she had diabetes, dementia and had recently broken her left wrist at another care facility.
Lee’s toxicology test detected a medication which the medical examiner said “does not appear to contribute to the cause of death.”
The California Department of Social Services’ investigation into Happy Home Care For Elderly is still ongoing, said Jason Montiel, a spokesman for the agency.
Li remained in custody on Thursday at Twin Towers Correctional Facility in Los Angeles in lieu of a $4 million bail. He has a Pomona Superior Court hearing scheduled for Dec. 7.