Nurse who found bodies of multimillionaire businessmen and wife sues for damages

A nurse who discovered the bodies of a multimillionaire businessman and his wife in a murder-suicide case is suing their estate and seeking damages for emotional trauma.

Lisa Ann Hayes, who regularly cared for Alexandra Jacobs, wife of prominent investor Irwin Jacobs, walked into their Minnesota mansion in April 2019 to find them both dead.

Investigators found that Irwin shot his wife before turning the gun on himself, amid health and financial troubles.

The couple had been married for 57 years, had five children and eight grandchildren.

Ms Hayes says she is suffering from post-traumatic stress and has been unable to work since the incident, so is seeking damages, claiming Irwin Jacobs' actions were injurious to her health and "constituted willful, wanton and malicious conduct."

She is reportedly seeking $12.5 million.

Irwin Jacobs once held a stake in the Minnesota Vikings and was a nationally known investor who made a fortune as a corporate raider in the 1980s and 1990s.

He was dubbed “Irv the liquidator” for his practice of breaking companies apart and then selling them off.

The Jacobs family lawyer Steven Sitek called the lawsuit "a grotesque betrayal" by a once trusted caregiver who was treated like family. Sitek plans to seek dismissal of the lawsuit, the Star Tribune reported.

"This is simply the latest baseless effort to extort the Jacobs family and Irwin's estate," Mr Sitek said in a statement.

"Ms. Hayes threatened to publicly file her lawsuit filled with unnecessarily lurid and sensationalised details unless the estate paid her $12.5 million."

Brian Stofferahn, the attorney for Ms Hayes, says she has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder by two doctors and has been unable to work since the incident.

Mr Stofferahn declined to comment on whether she had asked for $12.5 million, but said there has been a demand against the insurance company.

"And hopefully at some point (the company) will make a good-faith offer. And they have not to date," he said.