Followup[4]: Irony at Galloway Ridge

[mdlbear]

A criminal check could have been run on a woman charged with killing two retirement community residents

Two elderly victims of fatal beatings at Galloway Ridge retirement community in Pittsboro could have learned -- on their own or with the facility's help -- about the criminal background of the woman charged in their deaths, human services officials and Galloway's executive director said.

Jason Crunk, executive director of Galloway Ridge, said Thursday that policies there called for Galloway to run a criminal check on any employees hired separately by residents. Margaret Murta, 92, and Mary Corcoran, 82, died after an attack Dec. 5 in their Galloway apartment. A former employee of the women, Barbara T. Clark, 41, of Pittsboro has been charged in the deaths.

"The residents can hire people to do work for them," Crunk said. "There is a policy we have that we screen them, but they did not inform us that they had this relationship."

This is one of the better articles; the subject seems to have dropped off the radar at Google News, so this will be my last post on the subject unless something new comes up down the line, possibly at the trial. I've given this thread the tag murder at galloway ridge for convenience.

Comments

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

OMG & WTF!!! My stepmom and her husband also live there!!!! Better believe I'll be following this story!!

[mdlbear]

OMG indeed. My mom would have been one of the victims, except that she had a dentist appointment.

Many thanks for that Cordwainer Smith link, by the way. I've been a rabid CS fan for about, oh, 40-odd years.

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

"My mom would have been one of the victims, except that she had a dentist appointment." So I saw, starting with your first post on the subject. And I have just written to my sister and to my para-stepdad's kids about this, quoting the director from the article on background checks.

I am very shaken, as you can ... well, you've been there, though a much closer call for you!

I better get off the net now and do things that I have to do. That may help me calm down.

Oh, glad you like the Smith link. I see that others have picked it up and been passing it around. :-) Always happy to be an info-nexus.

[figmo.livejournal.com]

My sympathies go out to your mother.

I agree with your and your mother's reactions to the stepped-up "security" at the community. The real security would have been to make it easy for residents to do background checks. DUH!!!

[mdlbear]

Apparently they do make it easy, and even help. But you have to ask them to do it.

[figmo.livejournal.com]

In which case they need to make it easier. Grrf.

[mdlbear]

I'm not sure it's possible: you can make something foolproof, but you can't make it damnfool proof. They both used to be social workers, and "knew what they were doing".

You can be pretty sure that anyone else in the place is having their hired help looked into six ways from Sunday.