An Arizona woman was left reeling after finding her elderly uncle’s “hollowed out” corpse slumped in a chair at his assisted living facility — and claims the staff didn’t bother to check on him for nearly a week.
Angela Boorn made the grisly discovery when she went to visit her uncle, 75-year-old Gerald McClellan — whom she lovingly considered her second father — at his studio apartment at LifeStream at Sun City on Oct. 16, according to AZ Family.
When her usual cheerful greeting, “Uncle, I’m here,” was met with silence, the niece stepped inside and was met with the horrifying sight.
“It looked like a skeleton in a chair,” Boorn told the outlet, adding “the face, the eyes were hollowed out.”
“It didn’t even look like a person because he had been there for so long. Nobody should have to see that. I just remember running out of the room and running to the front desk and just asking her when was the last time you checked on him.”
But it had been at least four days since anyone checked on him, the distraught niece was allegedly told.
Boorn — now wracked with guilt — moved her uncle to the Sun City facility in January after his wife passed away. She said she chose the location and paid $1,700 a month in rent, believing it had safeguards in place to prevent tragedies like this from ever happening, the outlet reported.
One of those safety measures, Boorn said, was a daily check-in button installed in every room that residents are expected to press each morning to let staff know they were safe.
“Every day by 10 a.m., a staffing member was supposed to reach out to him or come check on him,” the shaken Waddell resident explained.
“He didn’t push the button; they tried to call him, didn’t get a hold of him, and they still did not go check on him. It wasn’t one day, it wasn’t two days, it wasn’t three days, it was four.”
Local authorities later confirmed that McClellan had likely been dead for three to four days before anyone at the independent living center finally called 911, according to the news station.
“LifeStream at Sun City is deeply saddened by the passing of one of our residents,” the facility said in a statement to the outlet.
“Our heartfelt condolences and prayers go out to their family and loved ones during this difficult time. Out of respect for the family’s privacy, we are not sharing further details at this time.”
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