Woman Faces Charges After Man Dies In Her HomeA Warsaw woman was arrested on a neglect charge after a man living with her died.
Lora Lynn Harris, 61, of 223 W. Jefferson St., #7, Warsaw, is charged with neglect of a dependent, a Level 1 felony, and failure to report a dead body, a Class A misdemeanor.
She was booked into the Kosciusko County Jail at 12:17 p.m. Friday with a $50,250 preliminary bond.
According to the probable cause affidavit, at approximately 5 p.m. Jan. 4, Warsaw police officers responded to a possible death at a Warsaw residence. The caller, later identified as Harris, told dispatch the body was blue and cold to the touch.
Upon arrival residence, officers made contact with Harris who said a man was dead in the room at the far end of the apartment. In the room, an officer observed a mattress with no sheets pushed against the north end of the room. The officer observed a man who was on the floor near the south end of the bed. According to court documents, it was apparent the deceased had been dead for an extended amount of time. Harris had placed a blanket over the body prior to officers’ arrival, but the dependent’s legs and left arm were exposed and appeared to be extremely malnourished.
An officer observed several bugs crawling from the bed and floor onto the man’s body. On the floor near the body was a pile of fecal matter, but it was undetermined if it was animal or human.
Harris said she lived with the man, who is disabled, but was unable to provide officers or medics with a diagnosis or medical history. Harris later said the man was born blind with cataracts and was physically disabled.
When an officer was taking information, Harris asked if she was going to be in trouble. The officer said Harris was the man’s caretaker. When asked when Harris last saw him alive, Harris gave several different answers. Harris said when she last observed him, he was alive, breathing and moving. Harris said when she saw him, he was on the floor in the middle of the room and she moved him and put a blanket on him. During conversations with officers, Harris said the man was unable to move himself, according to court documents.
Harris said she feeds the man and last fed him three days prior to talking to police. Harris said she doesn’t feed the man every day and he only eats one meal a day because he sleeps a lot and has his days and nights confused. Harris told police she feeds him three packages of hot cereal and several eggs when she does feed him. Harris said she fed him when he was hungry and that when he does eat, he eats a lot.
Coroner Tony Ciriello arrived at the scene and examined the man. The body had signs of decomposition, according to court documents.
An autopsy of he man was conducted. Among the findings were the man’s body length was approximately 5 feet and his body weighed 51.5 pounds. The doctor doing the autopsy listed the cause of death as cardiac arrhythmia due to probable dehydration with elevated sodium and renal failure. The death was contributed to by cerebral palsy and protein calorie malnutrition. The manner of death was listed as homicide, according to court documents.
An officer conducted an interview of Harris, who said the man was blind and could not speak and slept 12 to 18 hours a day, according to court documents. She also said she was discharged from the hospital a week prior to the interview, before Christmas. She said when she was in the hospital, another woman was taking care of the man. After Harris came home from the hospital, the other woman helped her pick up the man since he weighed 100 pounds.
Harris said the last time she went into the back room to see the man was Jan. 1 and she though he was breathing at that time, said court documents.
On Jan. 4, Harris said she knew the man was gone, but was not sure how long he had been dead. Officers learned the man had been prescribed daily medications and asked Harris when the last time he had the medication. She answered Jan. 1.
Harris told an officer the man was receiving almost $800 in SSI and received almost $1,600 a month for both of them. She said she spent the man’s money and would probably have to pay it back, according to court documents. Harris said she and the man had been living on Son his SSI money and food stamps and she recently qualified for her own SSI.
Harris consented to her phone being reviewed by an officer. The officer saw Harris made calls to Dir St. Express, which Harris said is the number she calls to see if the SSI money and stimulus payments had been deposited into her account. She said she had called the number at 1 a.m. that day, but call logs said she called the number within an hour of calling police.
During the investigation, an officer spoke to the other woman who took care of the man while Harris was in the hospital. She said the last she saw the man was approximately Dec. 28 or 29, 2020, and he was alive.
