Belle Burkhard was 74 and a resident of Alpine Manor Nursing Home in Walker, Michigan when she was killed in 1987. Her death was not from natural causes; she was one of five elderly women murdered at the facility by two nurse’s aides, Gwendolyn Graham and Catherine Wood. The victims were suffocated with a washcloth, and the killers targeted vulnerable patients in the nursing home.

According to Wood’s later statements, Graham carried out the killings while Wood served as a lookout. Wood told her ex-husband about the murders, which led to the police being notified; she agreed to testify against Graham as part of a plea deal. Graham was convicted of five counts of first-degree murder and given life without parole. Wood was sentenced to 20 to 40 years for second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

Does anyone have memories of Alpine Manor from the 1980s or information about residents there that could shed more light on how these crimes went undetected?