Ruth Keating, a 91 year-old white woman, died Sunday, Aug. 19, 2007, at Brier Oak Terrace Care Center, 5154 Sunset Blvd. in Los Angeles, authorities said.
According to coroner’s reports, Keating died of sepsis, bone infection, bedsores, hypertension and malnutrition. Her case was listed as a homicide by the coroner.
Keating's conditions pre-dated her week-long stay at Brier Oak Terrace, according to coroner’s spokesman Ed Winter.
Los Angeles police investigated evidence of neglect, including a previous report by doctors at Los Angeles Medical Center after Keating was brought in for treatment Aug. 2 by her son, her live-in caretaker, Winter said. Investigators interviewed Keating’s doctor and neighbors, but found no evidence of elder abuse, according to Detective T.J. Morris.
As of Jan. 21, 2009, police were still reviewing whether the case was a criminal homicide, Morris said.
-- Molly Hennessy-Fiske