73YO Indiana Man Left To Slowly Die ‘Sunken Into’ Urine, Blood, & Feces-Covered Couch By Daughter & Her Husband

[Sugar Cookie]

An Indiana couple are behind bars after they allowed a septuagenarian man to slowly die in his own excrement on a couch in a seldom-visited room of their house, authorities allege.

The wife in the case is the victim’s daughter; the husband, the victim’s son-in-law — and police claim the elderly man’s filthy, protracted death was enabled, in part, to purloin his Social Security checks.

Frederick Groves, 60, stands accused of neglect of a dependent resulting in death, altering the scene of a death, failure to report human remains, and exploiting an endangered adult. Carmen Groves, 49, stands accused of neglect of a dependent resulting in death, altering the scene of a death, and failure to report human remains, according to Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Office records.

On June 23, Frederick Groves called 911 to report that his father-in-law Kenneth Rickenbaugh, 73, had passed away inside his bedroom at the couple’s house on Fourth Avenue in Evansville, according to an affidavit obtained by Evansville-based NBC affiliate WFIE. When speaking with first responders, the husband allegedly ventured to guess Rickenbaugh died sometime that morning or the night before.

Inside the bedroom, the smell of feces was prevalent, police said.

The deceased man was found on his back on a couch, his knees bent toward his chest in a fetal position, according to law enforcement. Rigor mortis had already set in by the time emergency crews arrived. The couch itself was soaked with a combination of feces, urine, and blood, police said. Flies were buzzing around Rickenbaugh’s corpse.

And, when the man’s body was removed from the couch, some of the stuffing came up because he had “sunken into it,” police said.

Police say the Groves explained that Rickenbaugh had come to stay with them roughly a year ago before his health deteriorated to the point that he could not leave the couch one month before he died.

“When I went in there and seen him in my own home, it frightened me,” Carmen Groves told WFIE before her arrest. “Friday, he was sitting up, he was talking, he was eating, he was drinking. Then all of a sudden I went in there Sunday, and he was deceased.”

The man’s daughter allegedly had at least some narrative variation when she spoke to law enforcement. Police say her story about when, exactly, she discovered her father’s body shifted over time. And, law enforcement claim, she gave the impression that she did not really believe her father had actually been sick — but was, instead, faking his illness because he craved her attention and care.

What care Rickenbaugh did receive, however, was extremely wanting.

The victim was clearly emaciated, police said. His body was riddled with pressure sores — the presumed source of the blood on the couch.

This is what the husband said

The husband allegedly told police he often heard the older man saying “Help. Help.”

“I asked Frederick who helps Rickenbaugh use the restroom, and he said he assumes Rickenbaugh just defecated and urinates on himself while lying on the couch,” Evansville Police Detective Nicholas Hackworth wrote in the affidavit obtained by the Courier & Press.

The dead man’s daughter was supposed to have been his caregiver, the husband allegedly told law enforcement. But, police say, there was scant indication he was able to eat, drink, or even use the bathroom.

Investigators allege Rickenbaugh, whose illness essentially confined him to the couch where he died, could not have possibly used the nearest bathroom in the house because the sheer amount of clutter would have precluded his wheelchair from even getting inside.

“He would never go to the bathroom,” Carmen Groves told WFIE. “He would either use in his pants or it got to the point that I went and got him Pull-Ups. He’d take them off and throw them everywhere.”

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Couple allowed wife's father to slowly die 'sunken into' feces-covered couch: Police

"Despite having voluntarily assumed care of him...they allowed [the man] to lay in his own urine and feces without accessible food or water for the days - and likely weeks - preceding his death."

lawandcrime.com

 

[Busy Bee]

Oh Dear! Thats very disgusting and nasty unsanitary! Ms groves has a Cruella DeVille doo! A bird is going to sit on her bottom lip! That’s a nasty way to “care” for someone, how you could let someone “stew” in such a toxic mess! I couldn’t take the smell, flies & filth.