93-year-old dies after being left without food or water, cops say. Couple charged
A few years after a 93-year-old woman died from being left on the floor of her home without food or water, a couple has been arrested in connection to the death, authorities in Georgia said.
The woman, Dora Jordan, was found in “very weak condition” lying on the floor of her bedroom on Sept. 27, 2021, according to a Dec. 16 news release from the Haralson County Sheriff’s Office. More than a year after her death was declared a homicide by state investigators, Jordan’s caretaker — who was also her granddaughter — and her granddaughter’s boyfriend were charged with murder.
Asked to conduct a welfare check two years ago, Haralson County Sheriff Stacy Williams arrived at Jordan’s residence, deputies said. Then, that’s when he heard a “faint cry for help inside,” according to the sheriff’s office.
When Williams entered the home, he found Jordan had fallen on her bedroom floor and was left “without food or water for an extended period of time,” according to the sheriff’s office.
She was immediately sent to the hospital, deputies said.
Her 42-year-old caretaker and granddaughter Angela Nicole Patton, of Buchanan, and David Glyn Smith, Patton’s 50-year-old boyfriend from Lindale, were arrested the night after Jordan was found, deputies said. They were charged with cruelty to a person 65 years or older.
Then, a month later in October 2021, Jordan died, according to the sheriff’s office.
She was a big fan of the Atlanta Braves, according to her obituary, and would spend her time doing embroidery, cooking, baking, oil painting and reading. She was survived by two children, eight grandchildren, 11 great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren, her obituary said.
“This case shocked the consciousness of so many citizens when we made the original arrest,” Williams said in the release. “Good people don’t understand how anyone could mistreat an elderly person, much less a grandparent.”
Her death was ruled a homicide by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation in March 2022, deputies said, which reopened Jordan’s case to be investigated further.
The “lengthy and thorough” investigation into Jordan’s death continued until Dec. 4, when the Haralson County Grand Jury indicted the couple with charges of murder and cruelty to a person 65 years or older, according to the sheriff’s office.
The couple were found in a shed in Floyd County, where they refused to leave the building, deputies said. After obtaining a search warrant, deputies arrested Patton and Smith at about 2 a.m. Dec. 16, according to the sheriff’s office.
Patton and Smith were both denied bond, according to Haralson County Sherriff’s Office inmate records.
Haralson County is on the Alabama-Georgia state line and is about 55 miles west of Atlanta.
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