Inset: Melvin Shimkus (Maricopa County Sheriff's Office). Background: The Arizona home where Melvin Shimkus allegedly kept his disabled son in a bathtub for weeks (AZ Family/YouTube).
An Arizona father allegedly left his disabled adult son in a bathtub for seven weeks, with cops saying the man "smelled like rotting meat" and was "only skin and bones" when they found him.
"Officers entered the residence and immediately noticed a strong, pungent odor," an arrest affidavit obtained by Law&Crime says about the home where Melvin Shimkus, 52, allegedly kept his 31-year-old son in a tub.
Police were conducting a welfare check on Monday, June 29, when they discovered the "extremely emaciated" victim, the affidavit says. His right leg was being held by "small ropes" and his right foot was "extremely deformed," according to police.
An officer said he moved the shower curtain in the bathroom and noticed that the son's right knee was "bent 90 degrees in the opposite direction," per the affidavit.
"From his knee to his foot, it appeared the muscles were gone, leaving only skin and bone," the document recounts. "Both his lower legs were purple."
The man was "covered in feces" and had been in the bathtub since mid-May, according to police and the man's uncle, whom Shimkus was living with.
Shimkus told officers he had been caring for his son "for approximately a year" and that he had a "nerve disease" in which he can't walk and had "very limited use of his hands," the affidavit says.
Shimkus claimed he placed his son in the bathtub a week before the welfare check. He told police he checked on his son and "noticed that one of his legs was bent 90 degrees in the opposite direction at the knee," according to the affidavit.
"The defendant offered to take his son … to the hospital, but the victim said no multiple times," the affidavit says, citing statements Shimkus made to police. The uncle also told cops that the son refused to go to the hospital but said Shimkus' timeline was off.
"At times he could smell feces from the bathroom where the victim was located," the uncle said. The man's aunt also stated that the victim had been in the bathtub for several weeks, but she did not know exactly how many.
"She could not keep track of time," the affidavit says. "She could not remember when, but at one point she was informed that the victim's leg was backwards."
The aunt told AZ Family that "everything was done that we could do," according to the outlet. She said that police and paramedics had been called on May 16 but they were unable to get the son to go to the hospital.
"Everyone tried to convince [the son] to go," the aunt said. "When the paramedics came, he said no. They turned around and walked off, said we can't touch him. He's an adult."
Shimkus is charged with vulnerable adult abuse and was being held this week in Maricopa County on a $12,000 bond. The son was hospitalized after the latest welfare check; his condition was not known as of Thursday.
Comments