Police Investigating 3 Deaths From South Holland Nursing Home
Updated 03/17/15 - 6:13 p.m.
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Police in the far south suburbs have opened an investigation, after three of six nursing home residents who were hospitalized on the same day last month have died.
The South Suburban Major Crimes Task force was investigating what some fear could be a case of multiple homicides, after one of those deaths was officially ruled a homicide.
Dorothy Byrd, 98, was among six residents of Holland Home in South Holland who were hospitalized on February 3, after falling ill from unknown causes. Byrd died the next day, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's office.
An autopsy determined her death was the result of morphine and hydrocodone toxicity, combined with hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disorder, according to the medical examiner's office. Her death has been ruled a homicide.
Two other Holland Home residents who were hospitalized the same day – 88-year-old Robert Rundin and 98-year-old Leon Krynicki – also have died, but authorities have not yet determined the causes of their deaths. Autopsies for those two men have not yet been completed, awaiting toxicological tests that could take weeks or months.
Rundin died March 7 at a hospital in Munster, Indiana. Krynicki died March 9 at Providence Hospice in South Holland.
The other three residents who were hospitalized on February 3 have now recovered.
Dorothy Byrd's daughter Sandra Byrd Peterson called her mother's death a betrayal.
"I sent my mother to Holland Home to be cared for, to provide the care that we could no longer provide," she said. "I didn't send her there to be murdered."
The Byrd family hasn't filed any lawsuit yet but family attorney Tom Paris calls the act intentional.
"I don't believe the medical examiner lightly calls something a homicide," he said. "I don't believe that six and perhaps seven people on the same wing of the nursing home and no one else at the nursing home end up at hospitals on the morning of February 2nd. All of it is consistent with intentional conduct."
On the day of the initial call, firefighters checked for gas or carbon monoxide leaks, and found none. Sources said emergency responders were surprised to learn Byrd's death was ruled a homicide.
South Holland police have said they would issue a statement about the deaths, but have yet to do so as of late Tuesday morning.
Holland Home chief operating officer David Mills issued the following statement on Tuesday:
"We're continuing to cooperate closely with local law enforcement's ongoing investigation and are referring all questions to them until that's concluded. Our own internal investigation is also ongoing, consistent with our commitment to provide quality resident care."