KEY POINTS
- The unidentified 77-year-old victim was found unresponsive in the man's bed
- An autopsy determined that the victim died of strangulation
- The suspect, 72-year-old Cliff Mody was charged with second-degree murder
A 72-year-old nursing home resident in Florida was arrested for choking a fellow resident to death, and the elderly man admitted to the murder.
The suspect, identified as Cliff Mody, was charged with second-degree murder Wednesday for killing a 77-year-old unidentified female resident at Gold Choice Assisted Living & Memory Care in Palm Coast, Florida, ABC 7 reported.
Cops who responded to the scene found the woman unconscious on Mody's bed after an employee called 911 and reported the incident. The elderly woman was pronounced dead at the scene and an autopsy determined that she died of strangulation.
"He had blood on his hands, and she had a busted lip. I could look at her as soon as I walked in and knew she was expired. I felt for a pulse, and there was no pulse," the employee said in the 911 call.
During the interrogation, Mody told the police that he killed the woman as she had wandered into his room and laid down next to him on the bed.
When the woman reportedly did not leave even after Mody asked her to, he repeatedly struck her in the head multiple times with an open hand and forcefully attempted to "eye-gouge" her with his fingers. He is then said to have held the woman in a chokehold until she stopped breathing, NY Post reported citing the arrest affidavit.
When the deputies asked Mody the reason behind the violent attack, he said he was "mad" at her for entering his room.
The victim, due to her "diminished mental capacity," often entered the rooms of other residents at the nursing home and tried to lie in bed with them, police said.
Mody, who had a history of violent attacks, was recently moved to the memory care side of the facility after he allegedly assaulted someone on the assisted living side.
representational image Photo: pixabay
