A Roswell woman faces elder abuse charges after police said they found her mother living in squalid conditions.
Kim Barbee, 47, is accused withholding food and water from her 74-year-old mother and forcing her to sleep on a mattress on the floor of her Treeridge Parkway apartment, according to Channel 2 Action News.
Roswell Police spokesman Zachary Frommer told Channel 2 that detectives think the abuse could have been going on for months. He said police got the case from adult protective services, which launched its own investigation.
“It appears she has been malnourished for months,” he said.
Frommer told Channel 2 there’s also evidence Barbee was using her mother’s assets to pay her own bills.
“The suspect herself has some health issues that may be a contributing factor as to why she maybe couldn’t take care of the mother,” Frommer said. “They’re looking into that now.”
A Fulton County Grand jury indicted Barbee late last month.
Neighbors told Channel 2 they had suspicions something wasn’t right after they saw the victim wandering around the complex knocking on doors.
“She was knocking on every door she could find,” one neighbor, who asked not to be identified, told Channel 2. “That’s one of those things you don’t want to see anybody go through.”
Neighbor Jennifer Lake said she saw police at the home several times.
“I was really concerned from the get-go,” she said. “It’s completely inhumane. Nobody wants to be treated that way.”
A man who identified himself as Barbee’s son told him the situation wasn’t as police described it, but wouldn’t go into details, Channel 2 reported. He said Barbee was in the hospital being treated for an unspecified illness.
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