In southern Iowa, a caregiver faces serious allegations of neglect after reportedly leaving a woman under her care in deplorable conditions. The accused, 25-year-old Audrey Engler, is charged with intentional dependent adult abuse, according to court documents reviewed by Law&Crime. The incident, which took place in August, has only recently led to charges.

On the morning of August 15, the Burlington Police Department was alerted to the death of an elderly woman the previous night, as detailed in a criminal complaint obtained by The Hawk Eye. This woman had been receiving services from Vibrance Homecare, and Engler was assigned as her caregiver.

Engler was reportedly residing with the victim until July 21, when the elderly woman was hospitalized following a fire that started on her mattress. The victim was unable to move independently from her bed.

As the investigation unfolded, police uncovered distressing conditions surrounding the victim’s care. Authorities found that she had sustained burns on her back, suffered from severe bedsores, and was left in soiled linens. Additionally, her catheter was full of urine, and she was discovered sitting in her own feces, as per the complaint. These shocking findings paint a grim picture of the neglect she endured.

As police began to investigate the victim”s status, they apparently discovered harrowing circumstances. She had burns on her back, “large bed sores,” soiled linens, a catheter full of urine, and she was sitting in feces, according to the complaint. But that was reportedly not all.

Engler was allegedly not giving the woman the medicine she needed. Furthermore, the home was a mess, with “stuff all over the ground” so that “a person couldn’t find a place to sit or stand.”

When police 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 Hawk Eye reported. 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.

Also troubling was that the woman appeared to be getting “skinnier and skinnier,” according to the complaint. The woman 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.”

The suspect would reportedly later admit 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 was placed in the Des Moines County Correctional Center on Thursday and is expected in court for a preliminary hearing on Dec. 29.

Burlington is located in southeastern Iowa, along the border with Illinois.