Screams for help lead cops to 80-year-old left alone in filthy camper, deputies say
The caregiver of an 80-year-old woman found alone in a filthy camper has been arrested, Georgia deputies say.
The woman’s screams for help from inside the “unsanitary” recreational vehicle on June 13 alerted nearby campers, who called deputies to the Shoal Creek Campground in Buford, according to the Hall County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies arrived as EMTs were tending to the victim, who they said was “bedbound and lying in urine.”
Authorities contacted the woman’s caregiver, Gretchen P. Manley-Philyaw, 54, who acknowledged leaving the 80-year-old woman in the camper overnight, deputies said. Authorities didn’t say if they were related.
Manley-Philyaw said she planned to take the woman back to her home in Buford, and both were allowed to leave the campsite, according to authorities.
A follow-up investigation by Adult Protective Services revealed she took the woman to another campground in Forsyth County instead, according to a June 24 news release.
Hall County deputies passed her information to authorities in Forsyth County, where she was arrested June 18, deputies said. Manley-Philyaw was charged with neglect of an elder person and exploitation of an elder person, according to authorities.
She was booked into jail and released after posting a $20,000 bond, deputies said.
The 80-year-old woman was released into the care of a relative.
Buford is about a 40 mile-drive northeast of downtown Atlanta.