Rob - banned
03-01-2005, 05:42 AM
ELKTON, Md. -- A husband was charged with his wife's death after police found her 81-pound body on a soiled mattress inside a bedroom where she had allegedly been confined for years.
John Joseph Dougherty, 52, had allegedly kept his wife, Mary Elizabeth Kilrain, 46, locked in a bedroom since she had an aneurysm in 1999 and began to constantly yell at her children, charging documents said.
He also allegedly told his daughters -- ages 10, 13 and 16 -- to lock their mother in the bedroom after they visited her, the court papers said.
Dougherty called police on Friday after one of his daughters tried to give Kilrain water and found her dead, police said.
Officers arriving at the home in Elkton, about 50 miles northeast of Baltimore, found her lying on a mattress surrounded by moldy food, excrement and a broken cane likely used to bang against the locked door, court papers said.
Dougherty was charged Saturday with involuntary manslaughter and abuse or neglect of a vulnerable adult family member. He was ordered held at the county jail on $350,000 bond, police said.
"It was one of the worst scenes I have ever seen in my 27 years of law enforcement," said Detective Sgt. Bernard Chiominto, of the Cecil County sheriff's office.
The daughters were placed in a foster home, Chiominto said.
John Joseph Dougherty, 52, had allegedly kept his wife, Mary Elizabeth Kilrain, 46, locked in a bedroom since she had an aneurysm in 1999 and began to constantly yell at her children, charging documents said.
He also allegedly told his daughters -- ages 10, 13 and 16 -- to lock their mother in the bedroom after they visited her, the court papers said.
Dougherty called police on Friday after one of his daughters tried to give Kilrain water and found her dead, police said.
Officers arriving at the home in Elkton, about 50 miles northeast of Baltimore, found her lying on a mattress surrounded by moldy food, excrement and a broken cane likely used to bang against the locked door, court papers said.
Dougherty was charged Saturday with involuntary manslaughter and abuse or neglect of a vulnerable adult family member. He was ordered held at the county jail on $350,000 bond, police said.
"It was one of the worst scenes I have ever seen in my 27 years of law enforcement," said Detective Sgt. Bernard Chiominto, of the Cecil County sheriff's office.
The daughters were placed in a foster home, Chiominto said.