Two people were charged Wednesday in connection with the 2015 death of a 54-year-old man who was found dead in bed, weighing 76 pounds.
Police got a 911 call Nov. 24, 2015, from OnStar to Adam Haynes and Pamela McNeal’s Verona home on Saint Rose Place for an unknown problem. When officers arrived, they found David Fuhrman dead in bed, according to a criminal complaint.
Fuhrman was "extremely underweight with significant pronouncement of bone structures and multiple deep sores and wounds on his back and elbow,” the complaint said. He had on “three adult diapers, with a large sore in the area which appeared to be infected,” the complaint read.
Police said McNeal told officers at the scene that she and her husband, Haynes, were Fuhrman's primary caretakers. According to the complaint, McNeal alleged that she had served as Fuhrman's caretaker for the past 15 years and claimed to have adopted him, but she didn't have the legal paperwork to prove her statement.
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McNeal told police that Fuhrman had mental health issues and “functioned as a 5-year-old,” the complaint said. She said Fuhrman’s health began to deteriorate and he began eating less and falling down more often.
Police wrote in their report that when they found Fuhrman, he weighed 76 pounds, having lost more than half his body weight. McNeal told a detective that when Fuhrman was healthier, he weighed approximately 140 pounds, the complaint said.
According to the criminal complaint, Fuhrman was allegedly working about a year prior to his death. Haynes told police that Furhman eventually lost his health care coverage and that's when he and his wife ramped up their care for him.
At one point Haynes became extremely emotional and allegedly told investigators, "He couldn't bear to change Fuhrman's diapers because of the extent of the bedsores,” the complaint said.
The Allegheny County Medical Examiner's Office ruled in November 2015 that Fuhrman died from a slew of ailments, including sepsis and pneumonia. The chief medical examiner last week officially ruled Fuhrman’s manner of death as homicide.
“The actions of Pamela McNeal and Adam Haynes constitute a willful neglect that was the direct cause of death of David Fuhrman,” investigators wrote in the criminal complaint.
McNeal and Haynes both face several charges, including criminal homicide.
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