An 85-year-old woman from Washington state has been charged with first-degree murder and assault in the double shooting of her two younger roommates earlier this month.
Beverly Jenne is accused of ambushing and gunning down Janet Oyuga, 37, whom she described in a suicide note as being ‘not a nice person,’ and seriously injuring the woman’s older sister, 44-year-old Angela Oyuaga, at the Federal Way home all three shared as part of an unusual living arrangement.
Jenne was booked into jail on $1million bail after being released on Christmas Eve from a Tacoma hospital following a failed suicide attempt.
Beverly Jenne, 85 (left), has been charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of her roommate, Janet Oyuga, 37 (right)
Jenne is also accused of ambushing Janet’s older sister, Angela, 44, and shooting her multiple times, but the woman survived
Police report that dispatchers received a 911 call from Angela Oyuaga just before 1am on December 19 saying she had been shot in her home in the city of Federal Way.
Officers arrived at the residence in the 2000 block of SW 306th Lane to find both the Oyuga sisters shot multiple times.
Janet Oyuaga was pronounced dead at the scene from gunshot wounds to the back and chest.
Her sibling, Angela Oyuaga, was rushed to Harborview Medical Center in critical, but stable, condition. She survived.
Angela spoke to police and named Jenne as the suspect.
She said she had returned home and was walking up the stairs to her room when she was shot in the back by a shadowy figure, according to court records.
Detectives say Jenne had lost this home in Federal Way, Washington, to foreclosure after 40 years of living there, but the new renters, the Oyugas, let her stay there
Jenne allegedly ambushed Janet as she returned home and opened fire on her, fatally shooting her in the back and chest
Police went back to the house and found the octogenarian as she was trying to strangle herself with an electric cord. She was taken to a local hospital for treatment.
According to investigators, Jenne had owned the home on SW 306th Lane for 40 years, but recently the property had gone into foreclosure and was bought in November by someone else, reported KOMO News.
The new owner rented out the home to the Oyuaga sisters, who allowed Jenne to stay there on a temporary basis as she looked for a new place to live.
Prosecutors said in court documents that despite the fact the sisters had saved the elderly woman from homelessness, she ‘clearly harbored significant animosity towards Ms. Oyuga,’ reported KIRO7.
After the deadly shooting, police discovered a note tucked into a gun holster in Jenne’s 1977 Chevrolet Malibu, which read: ‘Janet was not a nice person. She drove me to this… Janet just pushed and pushed and I just couldn’t cope anymore as I had no one to help me … I think she was getting ready to [e]vict me and I’m 85 and no place to go,’ reported Seattle Times.
Jenne then attempted to strangle herself with an electrical cord, but police saved her
She was taken to a hospital, where she remained until Christmas Eve, at which time she was booked into jail
Police found a note in Jenne’s Chevy Malibu, which read in part: ‘Janet was not a nice person. She drove me to this’
Pastor Festus Gumbo, who knew the sisters, told Q13 Fox they had emigrated from their native Kenya to the US is search of a better life and were supporting their family back home.
‘The African culture teaches you to extend grace to those who need it support the needy, more so the elderly, the children and the sick,’ he added, referring to the sisters’ decision to allow Jenne to stay at the house while searching for a new residence.
Jenne’s next court appearance is scheduled for January 6.
Meanwhile, Pastor Gumbo and other member of the local Kenyan community have launched a GoFundMe campaign so that Jane Oyuaga’s body could be sent home for burial, and to cover some of her surviving sister’s medical bills and living expenses.