Former nurse charged over nursing home deaths

Detectives investigating the suspicious deaths of two women at a nursing home on the New South Wales north coast will apply for a woman to be extradited to NSW from Victoria tomorrow.

Police and emergency services were called to the St Andrews Nursing Home at Ballina after two female residents – 77-year-old Isobella Spencer and 82-year-old Marie Darrag – were found unconscious in their beds by staff.

Both women were pronounced dead prior to the arrival of emergency services.

Strike Force Odimi, comprising detectives from the Homicide Squad and police from Richmond Local Area Command, was immediately formed to investigate the deaths.

An assault on a third woman – an 88-year-old resident of the home – is also being examined by detectives.

Around 11am (AEST) today Victoria Police arrested a 46-year-old woman who had been employed at the nursing home as a nurse, at a property in Seaspray, Victoria.

NSW Homicide Squad detectives intend to charge the woman in relation to the deaths of the two women, as well as the assault of the 88-year-old woman.

She has since been transported to Melbourne, where she will remain in police custody overnight, before appearing in Melbourne Magistrates' Court tomorrow where detectives will apply for the woman's extradition to Sydney.