Chilling details of how an aged care worker strangled a 70-year-old woman to death were revealed in the Supreme Court of WA on Monday as the 21-year-old was sentenced for what was described as “almost the perfect crime”.
Jacob Anthony Hoysted was just 19 years old when he decided to initiate the “cruel and violent” murder of dementia sufferer Monica Stockdale during a shift at her Albany care home in November 2022.
Monica Stockdale was strangled to death by Jacob Hoysted (inset).
Hoysted was not charged until the following month after the results of a post-mortem showed Stockdale had extensive bruising all over her body, as well as neck and rib fractures.
Caregivers initially thought Stockdale had died peacefully in her sleep, but a suspicious doctor refused to sign her death certificate leading to the examination, with prosecutors saying that without that, Hoysted would have got away with “almost the perfect crime”.
But after initially denying causing the woman’s death, Hoysted later pleaded guilty to the allegations, telling police “I did it, I did it, I killed Monica. I strangled her”. He claimed it was to end her suffering and pain – despite the woman being in relatively good health.
The court then heard chilling details of what Hoysted said to Stockdale shortly before he took her life.
“Monica, we all love you dearly, your family loves you dearly,” Hoysted told police he said to her in the hours before her death.
“If you are in pain I just wanted to say, if it’s too much to bear, I think it might be time to go home to your mum and dad. We all love and care about you very much.”
When asked by police how Stockdale could return to her parents, Hoysted said “by passing away”.
He also told police he strangled Stockdale because he “couldn’t stand seeing her in so much pain”, claiming she was “going downhill” in the weeks leading up to her murder due to a leg injury.
But the court heard that was untrue and that despite her dementia and a fracture she sustained in a fall prior, Stockdale was in good health and in good spirits.
“Was it a mercy killing? We say that was his intention, that was in his mind, but we accept that he was wrong about that,” Freitag said.
But details of his actions were outlined in horrific detail by state prosecutors who said Hoysted was not acting out of mercy when he straddled the woman while she was asleep, tied a call bell cord around her neck, shoved a pillow over her face and violently “rammed” his knees into her chest to stop her breathing.
Police also found search history on his mobile phone around the time of the offending that asked questions like, “what is the easiest way to suffocate someone?”
He also searched: “easiest way to tell somebody has passed away” and “do pupils dilate when you die?”
Prosecutors also told the court Hoysted had a fixation with the death of others, serial killers and psychopaths.
It was also revealed the 21-year-old had been diagnosed with autism and ADHD as a child and had turned into a violent teenager, threatening both his sister and mother, leading them to take out violence restraining orders against him.
He was also later diagnosed with Cluster B personality disorder.
Even his own defence lawyer, Simon Freitag, questioned how he was ever allowed in a position of care.
“He has had a long history of issues with his mental health. As a young child he was diagnosed with Aspergers, ADHD and not that distant from this offending he spent about nine months in a mental health facility, as a result of his aggression and threats towards his own family.
“It seems extraordinary that someone with Mr Hoysted’s background was left to care for vulnerable people.”
In sentencing the man, Justice Natalie Whitby said Hoysted’s offending was “deliberate, persistent, violent and cruel” before she handed him a life sentence with no chance of parole for 22 years.