Daughter charged with elder abuse of Henderson woman
A woman was arrested after her 82-year-old mother was found emaciated with bedsores inside a Henderson home.
Police found the woman on July 27 with no teeth and dried saliva and urine on her shirt, according to the arrest report from the Henderson Police Department released Thursday.
When she arrived at St. Rose Dominican Hospital, Siena campus, doctors told police the 5-foot-tall woman weighed 69 pounds. She was “extremely dehydrated” and had poor kidney function, and staff said she had not been cleaned for days.
The man who called police said he lived with the elderly woman, but she was supposed to be taken care of by Brandi Lynem, the woman’s daughter and the man’s girlfriend.
The man, identified only as Robert in the report, was arrested on a neglect charge the day he called police. Detectives wrote in the report that Robert knew the woman’s health was deteriorating, but he did not do anything until she was extremely ill.
“Brandi admitted to Robert during jail phone calls that (the victim) was her responsibility and not Robert’s,” police wrote.
It was unclear if Robert was still facing charges Thursday.
When Lynem, 41, was arrested on Aug. 16, she told police her mother had been refusing to get out of bed since June and had been eating less. She said Robert usually changed her diapers, but Lynem was responsible for all other care.
“Brandi claimed that the reason why she did not seek medical treatment for (her mother) was because she was dealing with health issues of her own,” according to the arrest report.
Police asked her why she did not notice the bedsores and why she had avoided their calls for the weeks leading up to her arrest.
“Brandi stated that she did not want to go to jail without having her medical issues resolved and she believed that she would be arrested for elderly abuse like Robert was,” police wrote in the report.
She was charged with one felony count of neglect of an older person resulting in substantial bodily harm. Court records show Lynem is expected to appear Sept. 7 for a preliminary hearing.
Contact Sabrina Schnur at sschnur@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0278. Follow @sabrina_schnur on Twitter.
