Family kept corpse of NC woman in bed for months
Kevin Maurer And Alysia PattersonRelatives of an elderly North Carolina woman kept her corpse in their home for months, until authorities discovered the woman's body this week, and a prosecutor said Wednesday that one of the family members will face a criminal charge.
"There is no question it was known to the family and should have been communicated to law enforcement," said New Hanover County District Attorney Benjamin R. David. "This is not tolerated under North Carolina law and it is not tolerated by this law enforcement community."
David said a member of the family would be charged with failure to report a death, which is a low-level felony in North Carolina. He declined to identify the relative being charged, referring questions to the local sheriff's office, which could not be reached for comment after hours.
The sheriff's department Web site later listed the arrest of Amy Blanche Stewart, a 47-year-old resident of the same home in this coastal North Carolina city. It was not immediately clear her relationship to the dead woman and the Web site did not specify a charge against her.
The family did not return a message left seeking comment Wednesday evening.
The allegations come a day after police said a 911 caller reported that Blanche Matilda Roth was unconscious and not breathing. They found Roth's body in her bed.
Police said Roth likely died in May, before her 88th birthday in September. New Hanover County Deputy Charles Smith said caretakers had been going in and out of the house on a quiet cul-de-sac on a daily basis. He would not specify if the caretakers were family members but said they were not nurses.
Neighbors said Roth's family had been living in the house with her and continued to go on as normal after Roth's reported death. A woman who answered the door at the home Wednesday morning refused to comment.
David said an autopsy was completed Wednesday but he declined to reveal its results. He did not rule out additional charges for abetting concealment of a death, a misdemeanor. He also said investigators were looking into Roth's financial records.
Smith said the residence was very well kept. He said police hadn't received any calls requesting checks on Roth's welfare.
"They were quiet and stayed to themselves all the time," neighbor Ray Taylor, 72, said of the home's residents.
Martin Pedersen, another neighbor, said he had no idea Roth had died.
Pedersen, 55, said four other family members, a married couple and two sons, lived in the house and that a younger son went to school every day. He said Stewart's husband was in a wheelchair, and said Stewart came over to his house a couple of months ago to borrow a set of channel lock pliers because the house's water had been shut off.
Pedersen said the family was nice and the news surprised him. He used to see the elderly woman walking to the mailbox with another family member holding her arm. "They'd be laughing and everything else."
He couldn't recall when he last saw her.
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Patterson reported from Raleigh.