A hospice employee in Iowa has realized her destiny after she let her aged affected person rot in her personal filth, solely transferring the lady “one time a day” whereas she was caught in her care.
Audrey Engler was sentenced to serve no more than 10 years within the Iowa Correctional Establishment for Ladies for the crime, in line with Des Moines County courtroom information considered by Legislation & Crime. The sentence consists of time that she has already served in jail.
Engler, 25, was additionally ordered to pay a superb of $1,500. Nevertheless, the courtroom in the end agreed to droop the superb “[b]ased upon a assessment of the Defendant’s monetary circumstances.”
Engler pleaded responsible throughout a courtroom listening to in February to intentional dependent grownup abuse leading to severe damage. She entered the plea after she was charged in December 2025 and positioned within the Des Moines County Correctional Middle in Burlington, Iowa.
The unnamed aged girl’s mattress caught hearth 5 months earlier and she or he was hospitalized earlier than she was moved into hospice care in July 2025, per the felony grievance. Engler was assigned to take care of the sufferer by in-home care firm, Vibrance Homecare, which was paid for her persevering with care.
The aged girl paid for the hire and payments in her house, and she or he additionally allegedly requested her case supervisor to purchase her clothes gadgets, noting “all her cash was going to Engler.”
The lady died on August 14, 2025, and the Burlington Police Division launched an investigation into her demise in the future later. Investigators ultimately realized that the lady had not been receiving her medication, whereas Engler additionally inspired a nurse to cut back her in-home visits with the lady as a result of she insisted the affected person was being “adequately” taken care of.
Nevertheless, authorities mentioned that the house was messy and had “stuff all around the floor” in order that “an individual couldn’t discover a place to sit down or stand.”
Officers additionally mentioned within the grievance that the lady had “burns on her again, had ulcers on her buttocks, mattress sores [and] a full catheter bag” on the time of her demise, whereas it was additionally decided that she was even “sitting in feces” at one level.
A 33-year-old mom informed a choose final week she “does all the pieces for her kids” simply earlier than he sentenced her to fifteen years in jail for letting her disabled daughter slowly starve to demise. By a translator, and with tears streaming from her eyes, Doraelia Espinoza informed Decide Bruce Fox she “by no means wished” her 16-year-old daughter […]
Police mentioned the ladies would textual content Engler when she wanted one thing, although it was found the caretaker usually “wouldn’t reply for hours.”
Whereas chatting with authorities amid the investigation, Engler admitted that she solely moved the lady “one time a day.” She additionally admitted that she “might have taken care of the dependent grownup higher and will have checked on her extra and will have had extra compassion for her,” in line with the grievance.
