Woman accused of mistreating mother
A 38-year-old Spokane woman is suspected of criminally mistreating her disabled mother, whose living conditions were described as among the worst ever seen by the paramedics who treated her.
Two paramedics found 67-year-old Mary C. Tolliver covered with feces and urine in a home that was “cluttered with garbage, filth and human and animal feces,” according to court documents.
The documents say Tolliver wasn’t expected to live when she was taken to Deaconess Medical Center on Aug. 7. Although she is now listed in satisfactory condition, she is still unable to communicate.
Tolliver’s daughter, Lois M. Tolliver, had been living in Mary Tolliver’s home in the 1300 block of North Nettleton. She is now under investigation for suspected first-degree criminal mistreatment, a Class B felony.
Efforts Wednesday to reach Lois Tolliver for comment were unsuccessful.
However, court documents say she told police she hadn’t mistreated or intentionally neglected her mother. Lois Tolliver reportedly stated that she moved in with her mother about a year ago to help her mother and to give herself a place to live.
Spokane police Detective Brian Hamond said in a search warrant affidavit that the paramedics who treated Mary Tolliver found cat feces, a cigarette butt, a Snickers wrapper and decorative Easter grass in the folds of Tolliver’s stomach.
Authorities were called to Tolliver’s home after a juvenile relative found her wedged between her bed and a wall.
Hamond said in his affidavit that emergency room doctors reported Tolliver was suffering from a recent stroke, kidney failure, anemia, malnutrition, dehydration, a bleeding stomach ulcer, complications of diabetes, an inflamed pancreas, a hairline shoulder fracture, bed sores and skin problems caused by poor hygiene.
The case remains under investigation. Hamond said Wednesday he hopes to interview the alleged victim if she recovers sufficiently.
The detective told a District Court judge that his investigation revealed that the state division of Adult Protective Services investigated Lois Tolliver last December in another incident of alleged abuse.
In the previous case, Hamond stated, Lois and Mary Tolliver argued when Lois turned the thermostat down to 50 degrees, and Mary turned it back to 70 because her legs hurt.
Lois Tolliver allegedly responded by throwing her mother’s walker onto their snow-covered yard and putting the telephones in an upstairs room where her mother couldn’t use them. At the time, Mary Tolliver had only two bags of potato chips to eat for two days, according to the inconclusive state investigation Hamond cited.
He stated that Lois Tolliver told him she usually prepared three meals a day for her mother, but she said she rarely entered her mother’s room.
Lois Tolliver said her mother didn’t complain about her skin ulcers, although Lois Tolliver knew from personal experience that such sores are painful, Hamond reported.
He said Lois Tolliver also said she was unaware of any signs that her mother had suffered a stroke, although her mother wasn’t feeling well.
Hamond said Lois Tolliver’s brother Larry and his wife, Melissa, told him they had noticed Mary Tolliver slurring her speech in the days before she was found comatose.