Inset left to right: Papy Bibo, Uchenna Obi (Windsor Locks Police Department) and Margaret Healey (Obituary). Background: Bickford Health Care Center in Windsor Locks, Conn. (Google Maps).
Two employees at a Connecticut nursing home were recently arrested in connection with the death of a nonagenarian resident, according to law enforcement in the Nutmeg State.
Papy Bibo, 53, a registered nurse, stands accused of criminally negligent homicide and tampering with physical evidence. Uchenna Obi, 46, a certified nursing assistant, stands accused of reckless endangerment and tampering with physical evidence. The pair turned themselves in to law enforcement on Monday in connection with the hypothermia-induced death of 93-year-old Margaret "Peggy" Healey, according to the Windsor Locks Police Department.
The underlying incident occurred in February after Healey wandered outside and away from Bickford Health Care Center in Windsor Locks, a small town roughly 13 miles due north of Hartford.
On the day in question, the former Catholic school teacher and nun was found unresponsive outside in a snowbank on Main Street wearing only her pajamas and sneakers, police said.
The temperature outside was well below freezing, due to the large amount of snow. The woman was discovered facedown after being reported missing around 4:45 a.m. – several hours after she initially wandered off the property, according to law enforcement.
Investigators believe the woman likely fell into the snow and stayed there until she died from a combination of environmental exposure and hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, according to the Connecticut Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
"As a family, we are all grieving about this," Healey's niece told Hartford-based CBS affiliate WFSB earlier this year. "Obviously, we have some pretty significant concerns. It was bitterly cold that night. It was below zero degrees without windchill. She was out in her pajamas and sneakers, 10 or 15 minutes, she's in hypothermia. We have a lot of questions."
Many such questions have since been answered, police said.
On the night in question, Healey wandered out of an unsecured door of the health center and into temperatures that ranged from -1 to 0 degrees, according to warrants filed against the defendants.
Surveillance footage showed the woman leaving at around 1:55 a.m., police said. She was seen collapsing on the sidewalk and into the snowbank some three minutes later, according to law enforcement. Health center staff did not discover her body until 5:11 a.m.
But Healey was not dead yet, police said. Staff allegedly said the woman showed some signs of life and brought her back inside. Bibo called 911 at 6:23 a.m. after efforts to warm the woman's body for over an hour failed, according to law enforcement.
"We think that they felt that they were going to be in trouble, so they were trying to, in my words, do some type of damage control," Windsor Locks Police Sgt. Jeff Lamson told NBC Connecticut. "But they reached a point where they realized they had to call 911."
According to Bibo's arrest warrant, another staffer heard the man say, "I'm not calling 911 because we will all go to prison."
During an interview with police, however, Bibo told officers he made no such comments to staff about going to prison.
Regardless of the words that were or were not spoken, that morning, law enforcement alleged Bibo was partially to blame due to the length of time between the discovery and 911 call.
"The affiant believes that RN Bibo showed extreme indifference that by waiting 1 hour and 10 minutes before calling 911, he recklessly engaged in conduct that created a grave risk of death to Margaret Healey," the man's arrest warrant reads. "RN Bibo's conduct was a gross deviation from the standard of care that a reasonable registered nurse would have administered in the situation."
Obi, for her part, was responsible for checking on the patients in her wing of the health center at regular intervals – every two hours overnight – according to law enforcement. That night, the defendant admitted she looked into Healey's room and saw her walker and blanket, but that she did not actually verify Healey was asleep in bed.
"While nothing can undo this loss, we hope these actions represent an important step toward accountability and provide some measure of closure for those who loved her," Windsor Locks Police Chief Eric Osanitsch told New Haven-based ABC affiliate WTNH.
After being arrested and charged, Bibo was released on a $25,000 surety bond and Obi was released on a $10,000 non-surety bond. Both are slated to appear in Hartford Superior Court on Aug. 7.
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