LEBANON, Mo. (AP) – A lawyer who specialized in end-of-life matters has been acquitted in the death of her millionaire father, whom prosecutors claimed she had removed from life support by forging power of attorney documents after he survived an attack at his lake house that claimed his girlfriend’s life.
Susan “Liz” Van Note, 48, of Lee’s Summit, Missouri, was charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the killing of 67-year-old William Van Note and 59-year-old Sharon Dickson. She was acquitted on both counts late Tuesday, The Kansas City Star (http://bit.ly/2kx1VdE ) reports.
Jury foreman Merri Hess said the panel felt Van Note was involved but that they couldn’t convict her on the evidence presented.
“‘Not guilty’ does not mean innocent,” Hess said.
Dickson was stabbed and shot at the couple’s Lake of the Ozarks vacation house and died at the scene. William Van Note was also stabbed and shot, but he survived and was taken to a Columbia hospital. Prosecutors say Susan Van Note forged her father’s signature on power of attorney documents and that as a result, four days later, he was removed from the ventilator that had been keeping him alive.