Cops Say They Could Do Little Before Man, 100, Killed Wife, Self

Provided by The New York Times

ELMWOOD PARK, N.J. Three months ago, Rosalia Juskin dialed 911 from behind a locked basement door. She said her husband, Michael, 100, was ignoring her pleas, so she asked the police for help opening the door. When they arrived, Ms. Juskin, 88, described the episode as an accident.

It was the third time in three years that the police had been called to the couples home at 58 Spruce Street. Not seeing any obvious threat, they left, and then notified adult protective services. Hes 100 years old, and she chalked it up to that, the Elmwood Park police chief, Michael Foligno, said. She didnt feel it was purposeful.

On Sunday, Mr. Juskin killed his wife with an ax in her bed as she slept. Then he took a knife into the bathroom and killed himself by cutting his wrists, said John L. Molinelli, the Bergen County prosecutor. A relative found the couples bloodied bodies the next day.

National experts in crimes of the elderly said that Mr. Juskins actions made him among the oldest killers in the countrys recent history.

The crime tore asunder a relationship that had been unraveling in recent years, pulled at again and again by the erratic and occasionally aggressive behavior of a man who showed signs of mental deterioration, the authorities said. Those who heard the cries for help said they either understood the tumult as a symptom of old age, or lacked the resources to intervene.

Basically, you have two elderly people sort of starting to lose their faculties, not any type of criminal behavior, Chief Foligno said, adding that Ms. Juskin had not shown signs of serious illness. Theres nothing else you could have done or foreseen that a murder would happen.

That visit by the Police Departments to the Juskins two-story brick and clapboard home in January was the most peculiar of three they had made in recent years.

In March 2012, they responded to a 911 call and found Mr. Juskin showing erratic, dementia-type behavior, Chief Foligno said, and so officers took him to the hospital.

A year and a half later, they found Mr. Juskin berating his wife over her cooking and other matters, Chief Foligno said. The argument spilled into what Ms. Juskin described to the police as harassment. Not having seen evidence of violence, the officers left again, the chief said.

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Cops Say They Could Do Little Before Man, 100, Killed Wife, Self