The nursing home at the centre of a ''terrible'' killing of a dementia patient earlier this year says it has been cleared of any wrongdoing by the government, while a police investigation into the death continues four months later.
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Mystery still surrounds the death of a 94-year-old resident of the facility, who was found with facial injuries after a disturbance in the 32-bed secure dementia ward of the Jindalee Aged Care Residence in Narrabundah in January.
The managing director of Johnson Village Services, which owns the facility, Gary Johnson, said the exact circumstances of the killing were still unknown, and said investigations were hampered by the severe dementia suffered by all those involved. ''We still don't know what happened and we still don't know who's responsible,'' he said.
Two male dementia patients with ''challenging behaviour'' were transferred to the secure psychiatric unit at the Canberra Hospital, but Mr Johnson said investigators were not yet able to determine which man was responsible for the death.
''I'm not sure where the police are, but according to my staff, they couldn't really determine [what happened]. It was highly likely that one was responsible, but without being there and having the facts, no one could tell,'' he said.
Both of those men have since been removed by their families.
Mr Johnson said an investigation by the Federal Health Department into Jindalee has cleared it of any breach of its care obligations.
Jindalee has now installed CCTV cameras in the corridors of the secure dementia ward.
It refused to do this in the wake of a previous death in 2007, despite recommendations emerging out of a coronial inquiry.
But Mr Johnson said security cameras would not have helped to prevent the latest killing, although their recordings may have helped authorities determine exactly what happened.
''It could not have prevented the incident that happened,'' he said.
Police spent four weeks at the facility interviewing about 20 staff.
He said police had worked through a number of different scenarios, including one in which a staff member was responsible. That scenario was later dismissed.
Mr Johnson said police had ''grilled'' staff, and said the company faced a number of workplace compensation claims as a result of the police investigation.
''We were making staff available, staff were very distressed,'' he said.
''It was a pretty ordinary experience, but that's what had to happen, unfortunately.''
Mr Johnson said the aged-care service was not kept in the loop by police.
''I really don't think they knew, that's just my feelings from what my staff are telling me, I don't think they came to any conclusion.''
