BOSTON -- A 100-year-old woman was strangled at a Dartmouth nursing home, the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office said Wednesday.

The death of Elizabeth Barrow left her family stunned, especially her only son Scott, who said his centenarian mother was still going strong. He said she defied her age and lived a happy, alert life at the Brandon Woods nursing home.

"We're devastated. I mean, my mother was well-loved. She loved everyone at the nursing home. She had a daily routine where she would go up and down the hallway and hug people who weren't as fortunate as she," Scott Barrow said.

On the morning of Sept. 24, however, state and local police were called to Barrow's nursing home at 567 Dartmouth St. in Dartmouth for an unattended death.

When they arrived, police were told that Barrow was found dead in her second-floor bed by a nursing assistant about 7 a.m. during a routine check of the facility's patients. She had a plastic bag over her head and there were no apparent signs of struggle, an investigator said.

An autopsy showed that the cause of death was manual strangulation and the manner of death was a homicide.

Scott Barrow said his mother had chosen to live at the nursing home for the past four years and shared a room with another resident who is in her 90s. He said he doesn't blame the nursing home.

"She got the best of care, loved the nursing home, the staff was wonderful. I can't say enough about them, how good they were," he said.

He said his mother, who turned 100 on Aug. 21, still loved to read, socialize and shop and even at 100 she was "hardly at death's door." Barrow was married for 65 years to a former tax assessor, A. Raymond Barrow, who died two years ago.

"The day before this happened we took her out for lunch at her favorite place and then we went shopping for winter clothes and so forth and she was looking forward to, you know, continuing her life," Barrow said.

He said his mother worked as a cafeteria worker for many years in Dartmouth public schools and at Bishop Stang High School.

The State Police Detectives Unit assigned to Bristol County District Attorney Sam Sutter’s office, in conjunction with the Dartmouth police, are investigating the case.

Sutter's office did not release any other details, including whether they have any suspects in mind.

The owner of the nursing home did not return calls for comment, but a staffer said she and her co-workers were devastated by Barrow's death.