LOGANSPORT, Ind. — An Indiana woman did not report her mother’s death and lived with the matriarch’s rotting corpse because she “didn’t want to be alone,” investigators said.
Logansport police were called to conduct a welfare check at a house Jan. 29 but no one answered the door, the Pharos Tribune reported.
Officers returned Tuesday with a search warrant. They found a house in disarray, without power and a dead woman’s body propped up on a recliner. Animal feces covered the floors and items throughout the house. The carpets were stained from animal urine and feces.
The body of Cynthia Newman, 65, was found in a reclining chair with a pillow under her head and body. She was covered in blankets in “an attempt to cover the body from sight,” police said. Newman’s body was covered in insects and showed significant signs of decay including exposed bone and places where skin was starting to peel off. It also appeared that animals living in the house had started to gnaw on the corpse. A dog and two cats found at the house were taken to the Cass County Humane Society.
The coroner will conduct an autopsy to determine Newman’s cause of death. Investigators said it is unclear how long she has been dead.
“It does not appear as if there was foul play,” George Franklin, Cass County coroner, told the Tribune.
The house was later condemned. Other people, including two children, also lived at the home, the Tribune reported.
Newman’s daughter, Jaclyn Martell Beebout, 41, who lives at the home with Newman, told investigators her mother was alive at Thanksgiving but was not sure if she was at Christmas.
She told investigators she did not report her mother’s death because “she didn’t want to be alone,” the Tribune reported. She also admitted to taking $3,000 from Newman’s checking account.
Investigators also talked to Jason Dwight Beebout, 44, about his mother-in-law’s death. He told them he did not talk to Newman and it was common for him not to see her even though they all lived at the same house, the Tribune reported. He told authorities he was making dinner Jan. 29 when he went to ask Newman if she was hungry, saw she was dead and walked out of the room. Investigators said Beebout told a friend that Newman had been dead since October.
He told investigators he had a “hunch something was off since he had not seen Cynthia; however, every time he asked Jaclyn, she stated everything was fine,” police said.
Jaclyn Beebout was arrested Jan. 30 and charged with failure to report human remains. She also had an outstanding warrant for felony methamphetamine possession.
Jason Dwight Beebout, 44, was arrested Wednesday and charged with failure to report human remains. He was later released on bond, the Tribune reported.
Cox Media Group
