SC - Barbara Beam, 82, dies of extreme neglect, Greenville, 2 Jan 2015

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The caregivers of an 82-year-old woman allowed her to sit in the same chair, not moving for six months, until she died earlier this year in a home that smelled so bad that some of the first firefighters on the scene set up a fan by the door, authorities said.

Prosecutors are deciding whether to charge Barbara Beam's caregivers in her Jan. 2 death at her house in Greenville after the coroner's office ruled her death was homicide by neglect. She lived with her sister and nephew.

The officer called to Barbara Beam's home on Jan. 2 noted indentions on the back of her legs near her knees and body fluids staining the sunken seat of her chair, according to the police report.

The officer asked the sister about Beam's condition, and the sister said Beam "stays in the chair located in the bedroom and that she had not moved out of the chair for approximately six months," according to the report.

Click to expand...

Police arrested a Greenville man and his mother in connection with the death of a relative who was found last year in a chair saturated with feces and urine...

The Greenville City Police Department charged David Scott Howell, 43, and Carole Beam Howell, 74, with abuse or neglect resulting in the death of a vulnerable adult...

Carole Howell, Beam's sister, was released on her own recognizance. Her son was being held without bond at the Greenville County jail as of Tuesday afternoon, according to jail records.

Click to expand...