WILMINGTON (MN) — Two men were arrested in Delaware after a 77-year-old woman was found dead inside her home, police said.
Brandon Holland, 38, and Edward Jobes, 43, are charged with murder, according to a March 24 news release from the Delaware State Police.
Attorney information for Holland and Jobes was not available.
On March 20, troopers responded to a home in Dover for a welfare check after receiving a concerning report from a healthcare facility, officials said.
When they arrived, troopers found 77-year-old Lynda Carson-Fizer dead with physical injuries, according to the release.
Investigators determined Holland was an acquaintance of Carson-Fizer’s, officials said.
Holland and Jobes lived in a tent on Carson-Fizer’s property at one point, but after Jobes took out a restraining order on Holland, Jobes moved into the home with Carson-Fizer to act as her caretaker and Holland was ordered to stay 100 feet away, according to court documents obtained by Delaware Online.
On March 17, Holland got into an argument with Carson-Fizer and assaulted her, police said. Then, he and Jobes took off, leaving Carson-Fizer “with no means to care for herself or seek aid due to her injuries,” the release said.
Holland eventually told a healthcare professional he had beaten Carson-Fizer, which led to someone calling 911 and requesting the welfare check, Delaware Online reported.
“My sister was very, very smart, but she was going into dementia,” Carson-Fizer’s sister, Patricia Westfall, told the news outlet. “She had on one of those ‘fallen-and-can’t-get-up’ necklaces, but I think her mind was broken. She laid there on the floor dying for two or three days in that house.”
Holland and Jobes are each being held on a $1 million bond.
Dover is about a 50-mile drive south of Wilmington.
By JENNIFER RODRIGUEZ/McCatchy News