SHELBY, N.C. -- Employees of a rest home who discovered a 77-year-old resident outside, frozen to death, returned her body to bed and pretended to authorities that she had died there, Cleveland County Sheriff Dan Crawford says.
Ellie Lucinda Wall was found dead about 7 a.m. Sunday outside Whispering Pines Home, a 23-bed facility near Shelby with a history of state safety and health violations.
Though Ms. Wall already had died by the time rest home workers discovered her, clad only in undergarments, they told the physician who signed her death certificate that she had died inside of natural causes, Sheriff Crawford said. Dr. Robert Dorn of Lattimore signed the certificate. He couldn't be reached for comment yesterday.
"They brought her inside, cleaned her up and clothed her," Sheriff Crawford said. "They just said she died in her sleep in bed."
That's what Ms. Wall's sister, Viola Philbeck, of Shelby, said Whispering Pines co-owner Blanche Yelton told her when she called Sunday morning to notify her of the death.
"They tried to cover up, I think," Ms. Philbeck said. "It's just a horrible thing. They just called and said Ellie passed away. They didn't go into no details or nothing."
Whispering Pines owners Blanche and Leonard Yelton did not return telephone calls yesterday.
"Anything you want, you'll have to get from the Cleveland County Sheriff's Department," said a man who identified himself only as a manager at the home.
Sheriff Crawford said the circumstances of Ms. Wall's death would have remained a secret if not for an anonymous telephone tip to his department Sunday night.
The investigators then ordered an autopsy, Sheriff Crawford said. Yesterday, the North Carolina Medical Examiners Office found that she had died of exposure.
"It was way below 20 degrees that night," Sheriff Crawford said. "She was out there from sometime after 9 o'clock Saturday night until somebody found her at 7 a.m." Sunday. The home is in a residential area off N.C. 150.
The sheriff said anyone involved could face criminal neglect charges, possibly manslaughter, if evidence emerges that their inaction somehow brought about Ms. Wall's death. A retired grape packer who spent most her life in California, Ms. Wall moved into Whispering Pines seven or eight years ago because of failing eyesight and other health problems, Ms. Philbeck said.
Ms. Philbeck said her sister was able to move about her room, but couldn't see well enough to feed herself.
Sheriff Crawford said that Ms. Wall and other residents were supposed to remain inside after 9 p.m. and that alarms on the door should have sounded when any resident ventured outside.
"For whatever reason, they didn't hear the buzzer," he said.
The sheriff said his investigators haven't determined whether the alarm was faulty or whether the staffing at the rest home was insufficient.
Those questions, he said, will be settled by inspectors for state and county social service agencies who have begun looking into Ms. Wall's death.
Whispering Pines lost state permission to admit new residents for two months in 1992 and has been penalized four other times for improper patient care, said Lynda McDaniel, North Carolina Division of Facility Services deputy director.
The home was cited in August 1992 for restraining a patient too tightly in bed with "a hard knot" and not adequately providing staff to care for that patient, Ms. McDaniel said.
The state fined Whispering Pines $250, saying that error created "a substantial risk of death or serious bodily injury," Ms. McDaniel said.
Other violations were reported that same month after Whispering Pines admitted a resident needing more care than it was licensed to provide and for improper management of drugs.
In 1994, the home received a $250 fine for not following a doctor's orders to administer oxygen to a patient.