Elder Abuse Cases in Flint Township Shock Neighbors (MI. USA)

Elder abuse cases in Flint Township shock neighbors, have officials fearing it's part of a much larger problem

By Bryn Mickle

The Flint Journal

January 26, 2009

FLINT TOWNSHIP, Michigan

For more than 40 years, Pauline Niec has made it her business to know her neighbors in the quiet subdivision off Beecher and Dye roads.

She takes walks along the curved roads and waves to neighbors outside nice-looking ranch homes with large front yards.

But something terrible has been going on behind some closed doors on Sun Terrace Drive.

Inside two homes just four doors apart, officials say those entrusted to look out for two elderly women were instead horribly neglecting them -- one to the point of death.

Niec said she knew both families involved.

On warm evenings, she sometimes walked through the neighborhood with Christopher Mukdsi and talked about his mother.

"He said she had cancer," said Niec, adding the walks tapered off a couple of years ago.

But when she opened her newspaper last Saturday, Niec discovered that Christopher's mother, Katherine, had died last summer of alleged neglect so horrific that Genesee County Sheriff Robert J. Pickell likened her home to a "death camp."

The woman had apparently been confined to the living room couch for eight months and was so malnourished that she weighed just 63 pounds when she died.

Christopher Mukdsi, 50, was charged with murder last week after an eight-week police investigation uncovered disturbing allegations, including claims that she had not been bathed in a year and been told to urinate in coffee cups and defecate in pizza boxes.

Two months after Mukdsi's death on June 3, 2008, officials rescued her 95-year-old neighbor from a home that officials say had been turned into a filth pit of piled trash by her nephew.

Just a couple years earlier, Niec said she and the woman had taken walks together.
But the walks stopped and Niec no longer saw the woman out on her porch.

Niec thought about knocking on the door but never did.

"I should have but I didn't," said Niec.

Annie Speed, who lives next door to Mukdsi's home, said unkempt lawns and trash sometimes piled outside were the only indicators to suggest anything amiss.

"You don't bother people when family is involved," she said. "You don't want to get into anybody's business."

Officials fear that what happened on Sun Terrace Drive is part of a much larger problem.

Where to call for Help

If you suspect abuse of an elderly or vulnerable person, contact the Genesee County Elder Abuse and Exploitation Prevention program at (810) 762-4022

Abridged

SOURCE:   The Flint Journal

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This case really shocked me.  The descriptions (in other media reports) of the neglect of the mother of Mukdsi by her own son, made difficult reading.  How could a son do that to his own mother?  

This case reveals the physical sufferings of the victim before her death; and we are all horrified. We must not forget the other cases where the emotional and psychological sufferings of victims cannot be easily seen or measured.

We should be more vigilant about our elderly neighbors. Often we are dissuaded from doing so, as we believe it is not our business. It may be a difficult case to call at times.

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