Missouri Man Reportedly Left Sick Mother 'Rotting Alive, Fused to Chair'

An elderly Missouri woman was described as "a rotting corpse that was still breathing" after her son left her in a vinyl chair for so long her skin fused to the seat.

Carol Brown had to be pried from her chair by emergency workers after her adult son reportedly left her unable to eat, drink, or go to the bathroom at her home in Independence, Mo. The 74-year-old woman later died.

Emergency workers were called to a scene of filth and squalor when the man reported that his mother had suffered a stroke on Oct. 27, KCTV reported.

"The victim's legs were fused to the chair and her legs had to be physically separated from the foot rest portion of the chair leaving behind yellowish skin tissue," Independence police detectives said in an affidavit. "When she was removed from the chair, there were flying insects around her body."

The officials said that "bodily fluids and feces were heavily present" in the woman's home.

Hospital staff who treated Brown before she died said the woman had a maggot infestation on an open sore around her ankle, according to court documents.

Her son, who had filed an application to receive aid from Missouri State to be his mother's caretaker, told officials he had been honoring her wish to die at home.

Brown's daughter, who had worked and looked after her mother for six years before moving 1,000 miles away, expressed outrage over her older brother's treatment of the elderly woman.

"I don't know how you can leave your mother stuck to a chair. Nothing to eat or drink and she couldn't talk. She had her eyes open, but couldn't respond at all," Melissa Askren said.

She added, "You cannot sit here and tell me I was honoring her wishes by letting her die at home. You were leaving her stuck to a chair starving to death. That is not letting her live her last days at home."

Independence police are waiting for autopsy results before forwarding the case to the Jackson County Prosecutor's Office.

Newscore contributed to this report.