CLEVELAND COUNTY, Okla. – Murder and abuse charges have been filed against a woman in what is described by one detective as “the most severe case of abuse and neglect of a vulnerable adult he’s encountered in his career.”
According to the Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office, 45-year-old Shauna Brown was taken into custody at around 8 p.m. Wednesday on allegations she neglected to take care of her mother, resulting in the elderly woman’s death.
Officials say Brown was the sole caregiver her mother, 73-year-old Sharon Ingram, who died on August 19 due to “what investigators determined were preventable infections she received while in Brown’s care.”
Authorities say records show that Adult Protective Services had investigated Brown’s care of Ingram in 2017 and opened a new case in May 2018 after Ingram was found wandering in Newalla on May 23, 2018.
Ingram was taken to Norman Regional at the time with severe infections on her lower legs. Officials say one wound “was bloody and had a maggot infestation.” The hospital treated her and then suggested follow-up care.
Two months later, on or about July 31, Ingram fell in her Newalla home where she and her daughter lived. Brown had been given power of attorney two years prior and had lived with her mother in the home for nearly a year.
Ingram was left on the floor for 12 days without medical care.
According to Brown’s statement to Adult Protective Services, she said she did not call for medical assistance until her mother had been unresponsive for 24 hours.
On August 10, Ingram was taken back to Norman Regional and the Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office was notified.
Ingram stayed at the hospital under a doctor’s care, responding only to pain stimuli, until she was pronounced dead on August 19. Officials say she was covered with bedsores with a severe infection that would have taken weeks to form.
The medical examiner says she died as a result of staphylococcus aureus sepsis, also known as sepsis shock.
Detective Matt Sandburg, the primary investigator for the Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office, said this is the most severe case of abuse and neglect of a vulnerable adult he’s encountered in his career.
A search warrant revealed Ingram had been living in filthy conditions.
As a result of the investigation, the district attorney has filed two felony counts against Brown including second-degree murder and abuse/exploitation/neglect of a vulnerable adult.
