Inset: Rebecca Dewey (Vigo County Sheriff's Office). Background: The neighborhood in Terre Haute, Ind., where Melvin Dewey was found dead (Google Maps).
An Indiana woman who reported the death of her husband was allegedly not telling the whole truth about her role in his final days.
Rebecca Dewey, 62, is in custody at the Vigo County Jail after being charged with neglect of a dependent resulting in death. Dewey was arrested on May 28, four months after she reported her husband, 62-year-old Melvin Dewey, had passed away at their home in Terre Haute, Indiana. But when officers from the Terre Haute Police Department arrived at the Deweys' home on Jan. 27, they said Rebecca Dewey "provided multiple inconsistent statements" about what happened before she found her husband dead.
According to a probable cause affidavit reviewed by Law&Crime, Rebecca Dewey was allegedly spending time with a boyfriend while her husband withered away.
Police said Rebecca Dewey told them she checked on her husband on the morning of Jan. 27 while he was in bed after she returned home from running errands with Charles Maffioli, later identified as a friend and former colleague of Melvin Dewey. She said he was asleep and she covered him with a blanket. After she slept for a few hours, she got up to bring her husband soup around 3 p.m. and discovered that he was dead.
Then, according to the affidavit, Rebecca Dewey changed her story several times, which caused police to question her further about her husband's health. Police asked Rebecca Dewey how long her husband had been confined to his bed. She told them that after he was found wandering the neighborhood on Jan. 3, he was hospitalized and was rendered bedridden after he returned home.
According to police, Melvin Dewey suffered from dementia and had multiple strokes. On the night he was found wandering the neighborhood, it was 25 degrees outside and he was wearing a "thin coat, ripped sweatpants, and no shoes or socks." He was unable to tell anyone where he lived, according to a doctor who treated him.
The same doctor told police that Melvin Dewey was not capable of caring for himself, and she did not believe his wife was able to care for him either. But when Melvin Dewey was discharged from the hospital on Jan. 9, Rebecca Dewey told medical staff that she "was capable" of caring for her husband.
Police spoke to one of the Deweys' neighbors, who said he had not seen Melvin Dewey for about a month. According to the affidavit, he asked police, "Did she bail on him and make him die?" The neighbor said he often saw Melvin Dewey wandering around, exhibiting "signs of severe cognitive impairment." He also told police that Rebecca Dewey was "rarely present" at their home, saying that she would come by for "approximately ten minutes before leaving again." The neighbor told police that he did not think Rebecca Dewey had been living in her house for some time.
When police spoke to Maffioli, he told them that he had worked with Melvin Dewey for a few years in 1998 and then became "friends" with Rebecca Dewey a few months prior. Police asked Maffioli if he and Rebecca Dewey "hung out often," and he responded that "they do quite a bit." When asked if Rebecca Dewey often stayed with him, Maffioli stopped answering questions and said he could speak to a lawyer.
After Rebecca Dewey was read her rights, she apparently told police that she did not visit Maffioli often. When they told her that her neighbor did not think she was living at the house, she said, "I think I might need a lawyer." Police told her that it was not illegal to be away from her home, and she reportedly confirmed that she had not been staying there and had "not been doing what she should have been doing."
According to the affidavit, cellphone data revealed that Rebecca Dewey had not been at her own home since Jan. 21. During the time period of Jan. 15 to Jan. 26, the day before she said she found her husband dead, she was only at her home 21 times. Her phone pinged at Maffioli's residence "over 1,800 times" during the same time period.
An autopsy on Melvin Dewey revealed that he had suffered "malnutrition and skin break down" before he died.
Rebecca Dewey was arrested on May 28 and charged with neglect of a dependent resulting in death. She is being held at the Vigo County Jail on $50,000 cash bond. Her next court date was scheduled for Aug. 27.
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