ABSTRACT
In late July of 2005, a tragic story of a Korean immigrant family shocked the Korean American community. An elderly woman with dementia who was living with her son’s family had become increasingly violent, hitting and throwing things at family members, and breaking windows on several occasions in her attempts to leave the house. Her daughter-in-law, the primary caregiver, was also caring for her father, who had come to live with the family a few months before the incident after he became physically impaired following a stroke. On the tragic day, the caregiver daughter had to go somewhere for a few hours and asked her father to care for her mother-in-law while she was gone. When she returned, the two elderly relatives were dead. Allegedly, her father killed the demented woman and then took his own life. The family and authorities speculated that he committed the homicide in order to free his daughter and the family from all the heavy burdens associated with the increasingly difficult caregiving situation.
