A woman is accused of killing her grandmother by suffocation and setting her house in Fort Atkinson on fire days later.
Elizabeth Durkee told investigators the 72-year-old woman was in ill health, spent most of her time in bed and wanted to die, so on June 7 she covered her grandmother's nose and mouth with duct tape and she eventually stopped moving, according to a criminal complaint filed in Jefferson County.
According to prosecutors, on June 10 Durkee poured gas around the home, including on a blanket which covered her grandmother's body. The following morning, Durkee lit the blanket on fire and left the house with her 2-year-old daughter, the complaint said. The fire spread to other areas of the house. When firefighters found the woman's body, authorities initially believed she died in the fire. But, an autopsy showed she had died well before the fire and that her body had begun to decompose, according to the complaint.