Woman Held After Assisting Suicide of WWII Vet, Stealing Medals, D.A. Says

Orange County sheriff's deputies today arrested a woman on suspicion of assisting an 86-year-old Laguna Niguel man in committing suicide.

Elizabeth Barrett, 66, of Laguna Woods, was arrested at her home in the retirement community this morning, sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino said.

Jack Koency died Sept. 30, 2011, and an investigation showed that Barrett, a social worker, helped him kill himself with a three-drug cocktail that included Oxycodone, he said. 

Koency, a WWII veteran, was not terminally ill, bedridden, or immobile, authorities said.

Barrett met Koency a few years ago and the two occasionally met socially at Starbucks as part of a larger group, authorities said. The two had not had contact for several months and had re-connected approximately a week before Koency’s death.

On the morning of Sept. 30, Barrett is accused of driving Koency to the Neptune Society so that he could make his own funeral arrangements. Barrett then went to a store and purchased yogurt, a bottle of brandy, and over-the-counter heartburn medication, authorities said. Heartburn medication is used to prevent acid reflux, which is common when a person takes a large dosage of medication or pills.

Barrett drove Koency back to his apartment, crushed a lethal amount of Oxycontin, and mixed it into the yogurt to help Koency kill himself, authorities said. Barrett gave the Oxycontin-laced yogurt to Koency, who ate it, went into his bedroom, laid down, and died, authorities said.

After Koency died, Barrett is accused of removing his WWII medals from his wall and putting them into her car. After waiting a while, she called 911 to report that she had discovered Koency dead.

At first, Koency's death appeared routine,  Amormino said.

But investigators noticed a few things that made them curious, such as Koency having already arranged for his ashes to be scattered at sea by the Neptune Society, and an address for a euthanasia association, Amormino said.

Detectives noticed a motion-triggered video camera in Koency's apartment at 25502 Camino Los Padres, and a review of images recorded just before Koency's death about 4 p.m. that day showed Barrett crushing some pills and putting them in a drink for him.

A post-mortem analysis showed Koency died from a combination of Oxycodone, Fluoxytine and Alprazolam, Amormino said.

Initially, Barrett, who identified herself to authorities as a social worker, said she had been with Koency earlier the day he died but had left the apartment about 3:30 p.m. that day and had not given him any medication, he said. When confronted with the video, she admitted giving him the mixture and helping him commit suicide, Amormino said.

Barrett is charged with one felony count of assisted suicide and faces a maximum sentence of three years in state prison if convicted. Barrett is currently being held on $25,000 bail. Her arraignment date is to be determined.