A 60-year-old Canyon Country man allegedly fatally shot his wife, who was suffering from dementia, then went to a North Hills nursing facility and gunned down his ailing sister Thursday in what police called an apparent pair of mercy killings.
Los Angeles police initially responded to a shooting at 9:20 a.m. at Country Villa Sheraton Convalescent and Rehabilitation Hospital at 9655 Sepulveda Blvd. No other patients or staff were threatened or confronted by Anderson.
Police said 58-year-old Lisa Nave, who had been at the facility for five years and was in a vegetative state, was found shot to death in her bed.
Lance Holger Anderson was arrested at the nursing facility, and a gun, a small caliber, derringer-type revolver was recovered, said Lt. Paul Vernon, head of detectives at the LAPD’s Mission Division. Vernon said the suspect set the gun down after shooting his sister in the head, then walked into a patio area and waited for police to arrive.
Police said Nave had come out of a coma about four years ago but needed close care, police said.
At about 10 a.m., meanwhile, an 80-year-old woman was found shot to death at a home in the 26800 block of Claudette Street in Canyon Country, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and Craig Harvey of the coroner’s office.
Vernon said that when Nave’s husband, son and daughter heard what had happened at the nursing facility, they became concerned about Anderson’s wife, who also suffered medical issues.
“Lisa’s husband told me over the phone that he wondered, if Lance were under arrest, who would care for his wife, or worse, did he shoot her, too,” Vernon said. “So the family called the sheriff in Santa Clarita to conduct a welfare check, and responding deputies did find a dead woman, presumed to be Lance’s wife, at the Anderson home in Santa Clarita.”
“The motives and rationale for this kind of shooting can never be justified legally,” Vernon said. “Mr. Anderson made a unilateral, fateful decision to take two lives and forever alter his and so many others who loved his wife and his sister.”
Anderson was being booked on suspicion of murder for Nave’s death, police said. His bail has not yet been set. The sheriff’s department is handling the Canyon Country death.
Vernon said anyone with information was asked to call Detective Efren Gutierrez of the Mission Homicide Unit at (818) 838-9948.
