Mentally disabled woman found in Bristol basement, covered in feces and urine

BRISTOL, Va. – A hungry 54-year-old woman, with the mental capacity of a toddler, was found lying on a bare mattress in a Portsmouth Avenue basement last week, covered from neck to knees in her own urine and feces. Patricia L. Rowe had been lying there for so long, police said, the mattress had the permanent imprint of her body.

Her sister, Michelle R. Burnham, 31, who owns the home on the 800 block of Portsmouth Avenue, was arrested Thursday and charged with felony abuse and neglect of an incapacitated adult.

According to police records, Burnham identified herself as the primary caretaker and the payee on her sister’s government checks.

“It’s not as bad as they’re making it out to be,” Burnham said just before her arrest Thursday, standing on the front porch of her small, dilapidated white house.

At least six adults, four children and half a dozen dogs live there. Burnham said that she’s been her sister’s caretaker since their mother passed away in 2001.

Rowe, who was emaciated, was taken to the hospital, where she stayed for two days before being released into the care of a brother in Bluff City, Tenn.

She was covered in bug bites and a rash, which police suspect were caused by general poor hygiene and lying in urine-drenched clothing.

“My description doesn’t do it justice,” said social worker Ronald Snodgrass with the Bristol Department of Social Services. “The smell itself was so extremely intense. I have not seen anything to that degree, and that’s after 20 years.”

Snodgrass said Rowe functions mentally at the level of a 2- or 3-year-old as the result of a childhood accident. She could walk and speak, but just barely. She did not understand where she was or what condition she was in. The only covering on her bed was a little fleece blanket, coated with feces. Her room was filled with trash, he said. A dirty plate and bowl sat on a chair next to her flowered mattress, and an empty pizza box was tossed on the floor nearby.

“This little lady had no way to get away from anything happening to her,” Snodgrass said. “She had limited mobility and nowhere to go. She wouldn’t have the slightest clue where to walk down the street to and I’m guessing everything she knows is right there in that environment.”

Burnham, her sister, claimed to have been on vacation for four days, and someone else was supposed to be taking care of her children and sister. She said her sister was in good condition before she left.

Bristol Virginia Police Officer Michael Buchanan said that when police and the Department of Social Services arrived last Wednesday, acting on an anonymous tip, the people in the house denied that there was a disabled person in the home. They were given permission to go inside, he said, where they asked a child for the name of the lady in the basement.

“We call her Lou Lou,” he said the child replied.

Snodgrass said they went in from an outside basement door into a hallway, through another door, which led to a bathroom, then through another door to the room Rowe was in.

Veteran officers were sickened.

“This is a condition that occurred over time,” Buchanan said. “This didn’t happen overnight; it’s clear she lived that way for an extended period of time.”

He said Rowe seemed glad to see people; she asked them for a Happy Meal.

Pam Helbert, a neighbor, said she watched as police took the woman from the basement and loaded her into an ambulance.

“It ain’t newspaper-business bad,” she said. “They hadn’t changed her diaper. OK. So she had a pissy diaper. That’s it. It was not that bad, for sure.”

“That’s enough,” said a man to a Bristol Herald Courier reporter. “As a matter of fact, get off my porch.”

Burnham was released from the Bristol Virginia Jail Thursday afternoon on a $5,000 bond. She is scheduled to appear in Bristol Virginia General District Court for arraignment at 8:30 a.m. May 18.

If convicted, Burnham faces between two and 10 years in prison and as much as a $100,000 fine.

“I’m hoping she was treated a little better somewhere along the way,” Snodgrass said. “I hate to think we would leave anybody in the condition she was in. Truthfully speaking, we treat our animals a little bit better than the way we found her.”

cgalofaro@bristolnews.com | (276) 645-2531

May is Virginia’s Adult Abuse Prevention Month. In 2009, the commonwealth investigated more than 15,000 cases involving the abuse of the elderly and disabled. The city of Bristol’s Department of Social Services investigates between 80 and 100 cases annually, from physical and sexual abuse to financial exploitation. For information, or to report suspected abuse, contact the Bristol Virginia Department of Social Services at (276) 645-7450.