Mercy killing: 60-year-old shoots wife and sister in double mercy killings in LA
December 12, 2013
The mercy killing of a man’s 58-year-old sister, who was invalid after she had been in a coma, and the mercy killing of his 60-year-old wife, who had suffered from dementia, is being described by police as “a pair of mercy killings” or double mercy killings. “A 60-year-old Canyon Country man allegedly shot his wife to death before heading to a North Hills nursing facility and gunning down his ailing sister in what police describe as a pair of mercy killings,” reported CBS News on Dec. 11, 2013.
On Wednesday morning around 9:20 a.m., Los Angeles Police Department officers responded to a call by the Country Villa Sheraton Nursing & Rehabilitation facility at 9655 North Sepulveda Blvd.
When the LAPD officers arrived, they found 58-year-old Lisa Nave dead in her bed of a single gunshot to the head. On the table next to her bed, the police found a derringer-style revolver.
Lisa Nave’s 60-year-old brother, Lance Holger Anderson, was waiting for the police outside on a patio and surrendered “without any problems at all.”
After learning about what appeared to be a mercy killing of Lisa Nave, family members called the sheriff in Santa Clarity because they were concerned that with Lance Holger Anderson having been arrested, what would happen to his wife who suffered from dementia.
At around 10 a.m., less than an hour after the mercy killing of his sister, officials discovered what appears to have been another mercy killing. When officials arrived at the home of Lance Holger Anderson in the 26800 block of Claudette Street in Canyon Country, they discovered his wife had been shot to death.
"The assumption there is that he killed her, then came here and killed his sister," said Lt. Paul Vernon to reporters outside of the nursing home.
Lance Holger Anderson was booked on suspicion of murdering his sister and shooting his wife. Authorities say that his sister was in a coma five years ago and that after coming out of the coma, she had been an invalid for the past four years. While there is little information available about the 60-year-old man, he is said to have applied for a job at the nursing home to be close to his sister.
Lt. Vernon told reporters that the double homicide appeared to be "mercy killings at least from his standpoint,” but that the suspect himself did not use the word “mercy killing.”
