Pair 'face care home death charges' - News in brief - Evening Standard
       

Pair 'face care home death charges'

A couple arrested on suspicion of murdering five elderly residents at a care home could be charged on Wednesday, a police source said.

Registered nurse Rachel Baker, 45, and her husband Leigh, 48, a chef, were held overnight as police interviewed them over the deaths of four women and a man at Parkfields Residential Home, in Butleigh, Somerset.

On Monday night, police were granted permission by magistrates to extend Mr and Mrs Baker's custody time limit - and a spokesman said that questioning would continue until Wednesday morning.

Force spokesman Dan Mountain said: "Further questioning is taking place ... of both those arrested. The situation is unlikely to change before (Wednesday) morning."

The couple, who managed the home for nine years, were initially interviewed following the death of 97-year-old Lucy Cox on New Year's Day.

During the investigation, detectives decided to exhume the remains of three other former residents to carry out toxicology tests and establish whether they had been poisoned.

Answering bail on Monday morning, the Bakers were arrested on suspicion of murdering Mrs Cox, along with Nellie Pickford, 89, Marion Alder, 79, and Fred Green, 81.

A fifth "suspicious" death remains unidentified by police.

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