Woman charged with neglecting elderly relative

**lewisipso** · 10-31-10, 08:18 AM

BAYOU BLUE — A 30-year-old from Bayou Blue was arrested Thursday after an older relative was found living in a “filthy” shed amid human waste in what authorities are calling one of the worst cases of neglect they have ever seen.
April Johnson, 1207 St. Marie Drive, was arrested at 11:30 a.m. and charged with cruelty to the infirm. If convicted, she faces up to 10 years in prison and up to $10,000 in fines.

The 69-year-old relative, whose name has not been released, was found last month and removed from the home. She was living in a 10-by-16-foot wooden shed attached to Johnson's home. The space was “in disarray, filthy and smelled of urine and rotting flesh,” said Sgt. Lesley Hill, a spokeswoman for the Lafourche Sheriff's Office.

The elderly woman was on a vinyl mattress with no sheets, lying in a pool of urine that stretched to her shoulders, Hill said. Other bodily fluids were crusted on the bed, and it appeared the woman had been lying in a fetal position and “had not been moved in some time,” police said.

The elderly woman was taken to a facility in Gretna where she was treated for sores that exposed bone and tendons. Doctors learned the woman also had a broken hip and leg, both of which had gone untreated, police said.

Woman charged with neglecting elderly relative | HoumaToday.com