Mother and daughter arrested for sexually abusing 87-year-old Hialeah woman – NBC 6 South Florida

A mother and her daughter were arrested for what authorities described as the abuse of an 87-year-old Hialeah woman.

Anntoinette Deloris Woods, 49, and her 32-year-old daughter Sharanda Patrice Coach were arrested Thursday on charges including exploitation of an elderly person, organized fraud, neglect of an elderly person and abuse of an elderly person, the Miami-Dade District Attorney’s Office said.

Authorities said the victim had lived in her Hialeah home with her husband and disabled son since moving from Tennessee in 1959.

Neighbors were concerned after not seeing the woman for a while and observing “strange activity” in the home, including seeing the woman’s belongings being thrown out on the street for disposal, officials said.

Neighbors reported their concerns to Hialeah Police, and on April 30, officers conducted a health check at the home.

Officers encountered Woods, who told them she was the woman’s caregiver and presented a power of attorney and a medical health care authorization from the woman, authorities said.

Woods told investigators that she met the elderly woman at the doctor’s office where she worked, and the elderly woman asked her to help care for her disabled adult son, who died in February 2022.

According to authorities, after her son’s death, she took over as the woman’s caregiver and moved into the house with several of Woods’ family members.

Woods also told police that the elderly woman had been living with Woods in her Miami apartment since August 2023.

When police visited the apartment in Miami’s Overtown neighborhood, they encountered Coach and the elderly woman who said Coach had been caring for her at the apartment.

However, police concluded that the elderly lady’s living conditions were unacceptable: she lived in a room without a bed and was forced to sleep in a recliner, authorities said.

The room was small and cluttered with various items, including a disassembled bed frame, large black garbage bags containing unknown items and a folded walker and wheelchair that were out of the elderly woman’s reach, authorities said.

“She was in a room, there was no bed, she was lying in a recliner where she appeared to have been sleeping, and unfortunately she was unable to go to the bathroom. She did not have a walker to go to the bathroom,” said Miami-Dade District Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle.

The woman was also found to have bruises on her face, a large cut on her forearm and obvious injuries to her wrist and arm.

She was taken to a hospital where she was found to have broken bones in her right arm and the skin on her legs was red and warm, indicating an infection, authorities said.

Woods said the broken bones were caused by a fall in the bathroom, but medical staff said the injuries suggested they were not caused by just a fall, authorities said.

The woman was also found to be suffering from malnutrition and her pacemaker needed new batteries, indicating she had not been to a cardiologist in some time, officials said.

“She had some broken bones, she had some hematomas, she was malnourished. She wasn’t getting the nutrients she needed and, very importantly, she had a pacemaker and the battery needed to be replaced,” Fernandez Rundle said.

The woman told investigators she was experiencing so much pain and swelling in her legs that she feared they would burst. But when she told Woods and Coach that she urgently needed to see a doctor, they turned her away and insisted she did not need medical attention, authorities said.

She added that she was often left home alone during the day and was usually given Wendy’s burgers and other fast food, but typically only ate one meal a day, officials said.

Woods and Coach were taken to jail. Both later appeared in court, where bail was set at $72,500 for Woods and $62,500 for Couch.

“Imagine everything this woman had worked for her entire life, her home, everything she owned, dumped in a big pile on the side of the road. Everything she knew, everything she cared about, everything she had worked so hard for was lying on the street,” said Fernandez Rundle.