A man suspected of killing a fellow dementia patient at a Canberra nursing home in 2012 is dead, passing away 10 months after police began a complex and protracted investigation.
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Charles McCulloch, 94, was found dead with facial injuries in Narrabundah's Jindalee Aged Care Residence after a disturbance in its 32-bed dementia ward in January 2012.
The killing took place seven months before the unrelated death of another Jindalee resident, Aladar Vidak, 81, which police recently said they were reinvestigating due to the unexplained presence of alcohol in his system.
Mr McCulloch had spent just one night at Jindalee before he was killed.
Two dementia sufferers with "challenging behaviour" were removed from the ward after his death and taken to the secure psychiatric unit at the Canberra Hospital.
Only one of the men was considered a suspect, but police were faced with significant difficulties in establishing exactly how Mr McCulloch died.
Their investigations were complicated by the age, frailty, and sometimes severe dementia of those at the facility.
The forensic evidence also took considerable time to piece together, police say.
It took more than two years for the brief of evidence to be completed and handed to the coroner.
"The timeframe in which the brief was submitted has been impacted by the detailed and complex nature of the investigation and brief preparation process," a police spokeswoman said.
"The forensic evidence in this matter was particularly protracted."
ACT Policing said on Tuesday that their suspect passed away well before the brief of evidence was completed.
The man, whose age and name are unknown, died in November 2012, roughly 10 months after the killing.
Mr McCulloch's death is expected to soon be the focus of an inquest in the ACT Coroner's Court.
His death was also investigated by federal authorities, under the Aged Care Complaints Scheme, which is understood to have cleared Jindalee of any wrongdoing.
The alcohol-related death of Mr Vidak in August 2012 is also currently before the coroner, but the inquest is on hold to allow police more time to investigate.
It is not known how the alcohol, recorded at five times the legal driving limit, came to be in Mr Vidak's system.
Johnson Village Services, which runs Jindalee, said its staff did not give him alcohol.
Managing director Gary Johnson said he was at a loss to explain its presence in test results.
Alcohol is kept at the facility under lock and key, and is used only under reasonably strict supervision.
"Nobody has been able to adequately explain the tests that were carried out on Mr Vidak after he passed away," Mr Johnson said.
The two deaths in 2012 came after another episode in 2007, in which a resident was pulled from her bed in the dementia ward.
The incident left Ruth Rankin Gibson Mussen, 94, with a broken femur and caused multiple organ failure. She later died.
A coronial inquest into her death recommended that CCTV cameras be installed in parts of the dementia ward, something Jindalee initially rejected.
Cameras have since been installed, Mr Johnson told Fairfax Media in 2012.
The hearing of the inquest into Mr McCulloch's death is expected to begin this year.
