Second Exhumation In Care Inquiry

The second of three exhumations by police investigating seven suspicious deaths at a care home is to take place. Grandmother Marion Alder, 79, died in July last year at the Parkfield residential home in Butleigh, Somerset.

{mosimage}The body of Nellie “Mary” Pickford, 89, was exhumed last Wednesday. A re-burial was performed the following day.

Former managers Rachel and Lee Baker were arrested by police after Lucy Cox, 97, died on New Year’s Day. Both were bailed without charge until September. Ms Alder, who was married to a pharmacist, Roy, moved to Butleigh in 1987. Once her body is exhumed, it will be examined by forensic officers checking the body for traces of drugs.

Her family released a statement which read: “Marion, who died aged 79, was a proud grandmother-of-four and mother to a son and daughter.

“As a family we miss her greatly and would ask we be left alone by the media at this difficult time.”

A final exhumation will take place in Somerton, Somerset, in the coming weeks. The exhumation of Ms Pickford was the first carried out in Avon and Somerset police’s history.

The cemetery will be cordoned off as the exhumation and re-internment take place over the next three days. Police have said it will be some weeks before the results of the tests are announced.

The investigation began in January after the post-mortem of Ms Cox.

Det Supt Trevor Simpson said: “As a result we have become suspicious about the other deaths. It is a drastic measure to carry out exhumations, but we feel it is essential.”

The care home was inspected by the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) in January.

A CSCI spokesman said: “We carried out an unannounced inspection at the home… and found that standards had deteriorated significantly since the previous inspection in June 2006.”

An emergency closure notice was issued after standards failed to improve, the CSCI said.

Nurse Rachel Baker, 45, who was listed as the home manager, was arrested on suspicion of administering a noxious substance.

Her 48-year-old husband Leigh a chef at the home, was arrested on suspicion of being concerned in the administration of a noxious substance.