Hospice Worker Admits Guilt in Elderly Neglect Case: Patient Left in Squalor with Minimal Care

An Iowa hospice worker has admitted her involvement in a tragic case concerning an elderly woman discovered in deplorable conditions before her passing. Audrey Engler, aged 25, has confessed to committing intentional dependent adult abuse that resulted in severe injury, as indicated by court documents. This led to her arrest and subsequent detention at the Des Moines County Correctional Center in Burlington, Iowa, back in December.

The distressing situation came to light on the morning of August 15 when the Burlington Police Department was informed about the death of a woman the previous night. According to a criminal complaint accessed by Law&Crime, the deceased was an elderly woman who had been relying on Vibrance Homecare for in-home care services, with Engler assigned as her caregiver.

Before her death, the victim, whose identity remains undisclosed in the complaint, had been living under Engler’s care until July 21. Circumstances took a dire turn when the woman was hospitalized after a fire broke out in her mattress, leaving her unable to move independently from her bed.

Law&Crime previously reported on the police investigation that revealed alarming details about the victim’s condition. The woman suffered from burns on her back, bed sores, and ulcers on her buttocks. Authorities also found soiled bedding, a urine-filled catheter, and evidence that she had been left sitting in her own feces, as outlined in the criminal complaint.

As Law&Crime previously reported, police investigated the victim”s status, and they apparently discovered disconcerting facts. The woman had “burns on her back,” bed sores, “ulcers on her buttocks,” soiled linens, a catheter full of urine, and she was sitting in feces, according to the complaint.

Engler was also reportedly not giving the woman the medicine she needed. The home was in a general state of disarray, with “stuff all over the ground” so that “a person couldn’t find a place to sit or stand.”

When investigators spoke with the victim’s case manager, the manager said the victim asked the company to buy her clothing items because “all her money was going to Engler,” the complaint added. The victim also had a nurse, who told investigators she was visiting frequently to deal with the woman’s pain, but that Engler encouraged her to reduce the number of times she visited because the woman was “adequately” taken care of.

Also troubling was that the woman appeared to be getting “skinnier and skinnier,” according to the complaint. She would communicate with Engler via text when she needed something, but detectives reviewed their message history and found multiple occurrences where Engler “wouldn’t respond for hours.”

When detectives spoke with Engler, they learned that the patient had been paying for the rent and electric bills in the apartment. According to the complaint, the defendant also admitted that she only moved the woman “one time a day” and that she “could have taken care of the dependent adult better and could have checked on her more and could have had more compassion for her.”

Engler is set to be sentenced on March 23. By Iowa law, she could be sent to prison for up to 10 years.