Did lack of $$ to pay for care have a role in these murders?

A tragic story in the January 16, 2012, issue of USA Today http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-01-15/ohio-woman-dies-murder-suicide/52584916/1) illustrates the extreme level of stress that family members can experience while caring for a loved one at home. 

“LOGAN, Ohio (AP) – A terminally ill woman has died days after her husband fatally shot their adult son and her two sisters in front of her at a southeastern Ohio home and then killed himself.

Authorities said the shootings last Monday in ruralLoganapparently stemmed from family tensions over the care of the cancer-stricken woman, 59-year-old Darlene Gilkey. She was not hurt in the shootings and was taken to a medical facility afterward. 

Her daughter-in-law, Heather Sowers, said Gilkey died Saturday, hours before the funeral for her 38-year-old son, Leroy Gilkey ofColumbus.”

The stress on unpaid family care givers has been documented in many studies. Stories like this cause me to wonder how much this family’s lack of finances and lack of access to respite care contributed to these murders. Don’t you think that if Ms. Gilkey owned long-term care insurance (LTCi), the care her policy would have paid for might have made a big qualitative difference for this family, and possibly averted this tragedy?