Munroes time at the boarding house (11 apr 1982 anni – 28 apr 1982 anni)

Descrizione:

The first person who came to live with her in the upstairs flat was Ruth Clausen Munroe (hereafter Munroe). Munroe had been a clerk in a downtown Sacramento pharmacy until she retired in 1980. She only rarely drank alcohol. In November 1980, she had been prescribed Tylenol and codeine for pain. After she retired, she married Harold Munroe (hereafter Harold) in June 1981. Harold was an alcoholic. Harold introduced Munroe to defendant sometime in the fall of 1981. Munroe did not like Harold's drinking. In January 1982, Munroe was prescribed meprobamate, a tranquilizer. Harold had been prescribed Tylenol with codeine. Harold was thereafter diagnosed with terminal cancer and did not have long to live. In March 1982 Harold was admitted to a hospital which he was not expected to return. Munroe visited Harold several times at the hospital. These visits were "upbeat."

Munroe and defendant had become "best friends" and then partners in a food service operation which served breakfast and lunch in a Sacramento bar for two or three months ending in April 1982

On April 11, 1982, a few weeks after Harold went into the hospital, Munroe moved into the upper flat at 1426 F Street to live with defendant. Munroe had filed for a divorce from Harold because they were having financial difficulties paying his medical bills because there were married. At the time she moved in with dorothea. Munroe was a healthy and happy 61-year-old woman, and she was looking forward to living with defendant rather than living alone. She had five children, four of whom lived in Sacramento and eighteen to twenty grandchildren. Munroe's children visited her frequently, some of them daily.

ometime in the middle of April, Munroe visited a friend of hers at her friend's house. Munroe was in good health, and she showed her friend a large amount of money she had in her purse and told her that she had "eleven hundred [dollars] in her purse." A week after Munroe moved in with defendant, the food service operation ceased, apparently because the "business didn't work out." On April 25, Munroe encountered another friend at the beauty parlor where they were both having their hair done. This friend usually saw Munroe each week at the beauty parlor. Until this time, Munroe had been in a "fine" state of health. Although Munroe was "sad" that her husband was dying of cancer, she was upbeat and "a very happy, happy woman." However, on April 25, Munroe told her friend "I am so sick I feel like I am going to die." Munroe looked "drawn" and "pale," and she was crying. Her friend thought she looked "like she should have gone to the hospital," and she told Munroe this. The friend asked Munroe what was wrong with her, and Munroe said she did not know and would talk to her later. Munroe said was sick and felt horrible.

April 25, Munroe's son William visited her at 1426 F Street and noticed that she "looked tired." She did not appear to be depressed. He also observed that she had "a drink in her hand." Munroe was sipping a green liquid. He thought this "odd" since she did not drink alcohol. William asked her about the drink, and she said "it was just a drink that Dorothea had fixed her, Crème de Menthe." Munroe told him that defendant had fixed her a drink to "calm her nerves" and "relax her." Over the next two days, Munroe's condition worsened. On April 27, William came to visit her and found her in her bedroom. Defendant told him that Munroe "was sick and not to bother her," and she tried to keep him from going into Munroe's bedroom. Defendant said that "the doctor was just here and gave her a shot, she's sleeping, let her sleep." Defendant told William that Harold had been calling on the phone and "harassing" Munroe and that Harold had hit Munroe with his cane. William went into his mother's bedroom and found her in bed. At first he thought she was asleep, but then he noticed that her eyes were open and she was staring at him. However, she did not speak. He did not summon medical attention because "we trusted Dorothea" and believed that "she would take care of [Munroe]." Defendant had told Munroe's family that she had worked as a nurse or nurse's aide. A friend of Munroe telephoned defendant's residence that evening and asked to speak with Munroe. Defendant said that Munroe had just been given a shot by the doctor and was sleeping.

Munroe's daughter Rosemary also visited her that evening at around 8 p.m. Rosemary had been concerned about her mother for a few days because she had been "totally exhausted" and had complained of not feeling well. She had seemed to be "in a fog" that was "kind of trance like." Rosemary encountered defendant when she arrived at the residence. Defendant told her that Munroe was sleeping and that "she'd taken her [Munroe] to the emergency Medical Center and got her a shot because she'd been under a lot of stress and to leave her — just let her rest." Although defendant told her to "leave her alone," Rosemary went to Munroe's bedroom and found her "sound asleep" in bed. She gave her a hug and kiss and checked her pulse. Munroe did not awaken, but Rosemary detected a pulse.

At 5:30 a.m. the next morning, defendant telephoned Rosemary, said that "something is wrong with your mother" and told her that she "better get over here right away." When Rosemary arrived, defendant told her "[y]our mother is dead." Defendant told the authorities that Munroe had "a heart condition," had experienced arm, side and chest pain the previous evening, "had been sick in bed for the past few days," and "was having emotional problems" as a result of her "divorce situation" because her terminally ill husband did not want a divorce. She also claimed that Munroe had been alive at 4 a.m. but unresponsive at 5:45 a.m. When one of Munroe's family members talked to defendant about the circumstances of Munroe's death and asked about the "shot" defendant had claimed Munroe had been given, defendant said that there had been no doctor and "that was a misunderstanding, that it was a shot of alcohol." Munroe had not been treated at the local medical center at any time in April 1982.

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