A California man has reportedly been charged with murder after his elderly mother died from septic shock. Septic shock is thought to be caused by the poor environment in which the two men lived.
Authorities last Wednesday charged Richard Towers, of Santa Ana, with felony counts of murder and injury to an elderly person. It was about three weeks after his 82-year-old mother passed away on January 25th. According to Fox 11 Los Angeles.
Authorities rushed her to the hospital 10 days earlier after Towers called 911 when her mother wouldn’t wake up, the station said.
The Orange County District Attorney’s Office said in a press release that the woman was found with severe injuries that “would take several weeks to develop,” including one deep enough to expose her hip bone.
Fox said the floor of Towers’ home, which had no running water, was covered in urine and feces.
Cockroaches and other insects had made a hotel out of the refrigerator where his mother kept insulin.
Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a press release that “the brutality of putting his own mother through what is undoubtedly excruciating pain is unconscionable.”
“This was no accidental oversight by a careless custodian. This was murder,” Spitzer continued. “Inflicting pain on defenseless elderly women has no place in our community.”
The news agency added that police had long had concerns about the home and were looking to carry out a welfare inspection there in December 2023.
At the time, Towers forbade police from accessing his mother.
If convicted, he could be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison, Fox said.
