100-Year-Old Man Allegedly Kills 88-Year-Old Wife, Then Commits Suicide, Prosecutor Says
— -- A 100-year-old man is believed to have killed his 88-year-old wife overnight in New Jersey before killing himself, according to authorities.
Michael Juskin appeared to have killed his wife Rosalia with an ax while she slept, according to Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli, who tweeted about the case.
Authorities have yet to determine a motive for the apparent murder-suicide in Elmwood Park, which happened late Sunday, and first reported by The Record.
Molinelli tweeted on Monday night that the Juskins had a "history of domestic issues." The bodies were found early Monday after a relative who was not at the home at the time of the incident called police, The Record reported. A family member had called 9-1-1 at 8:40 a.m. on Monday morning after discovering the bodies, Molinelli said in a statement.
"The caller went to the residence to check on the two after family members were unable to contact them and became concerned," the prosecutor's statement today read.
Autopsies conducted today by the Bergen County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed that Juskin murdered his wife with an ax while she lay in bed before taking his own life by cutting his wrists, Molinelli said.
Elmwood Park Police Chief Michael Foligno told ABC News they have one record of an incident for the couple from 2013. Foligno said it was a non-violent case of “domestic harassment,” but there were no arrests or restraining orders.
A family member reached by ABC News declined to comment saying she was "too distraught" to make a statement.
Neighbors said they saw the couple periodically outdoors, when Rosalia would be tending her garden and Michael would walk his dog. Neighbor Barbara Szczecina told The Record said she last saw Rosalia sitting on her front porch at 10 a.m. Saturday.
"She used to be in her garden all the time," Szczecina told the newspaper. "They were always together, putzing around outside."
Juskin may be one of the oldest people accused of homicide. In 2011, a 96-year-old woman became the oldest person charged with murder in Florida in the shooting of her nephew, 53. Two years later, authorities found her mentally incompetent to stand trial at 98 years old and dropped the second-degree murder charges against her.
A 98-year-old woman in Massachusetts was accused of strangling her nursing home roommate in 2009. Last year, it was ruled that the woman, who had long been diagnosed with dementia, was incompetent to stand trial at 102 years old.
