Man Dies Week After His Wife Arrested

An invalid and multiple sclerosis victim whom police said was left in a chair for six weeks has died a week after his wife was arrested on a charge of criminal mistreatment.

Loren Willis Medlock, 47, of Kelso, died Tuesday night at the Veterans Medical Center in Portland. Doctors said he never fully regained consciousness after he was transferred there Dec. 27.

His wife, Mary Medlock, 49, may

now face a charge of manslaughter, authorities said.

“The standards for manslaughter and criminal mistreatment are different,” Cowlitz County Prosecutor Jim Stonier said Wednesday. “We’ll have to hear from medical people and wait for autopsy results to determine if charges are to be amended.”