‘Insects came flying out of the blankets’: Elder abuse case like a ‘horror movie,’ prosecutor says

Feces, bugs and trash were everywhere.

That’s what first responders saw when they came to the home of an elderly woman whose daughter has now been accused of elder abuse, WOWK-TV reports.

On Tuesday, police in Charleston, West Virginia, arrested 41-year-old Peggy Quesenberry and charged her with abusing and neglecting her 75-year-old mother. The victim is now in critical condition at a hospital. While she is stable, that wasn’t the case initially.

A prosecutor said the home was something like “out of a horror movie,” according to the television station.

On Tuesday, Quesenberry called emergency crews reporting that her mom had trouble breathing and had lost her appetite. Quesenberry was living with her mother and was her primary caretaker.

First responders reported smelling a “putrid odor” and observing “unlivable conditions” in the home, the Charleston Gazette-Mail reports. The mother was covered in urine and fecal matter. She also was “bonded to the blanket on the bed and her head was stuck to her arm,” according to court documents obtained by the television station.

“Insects came flying out of the blankets when they rolled her to her side, and they observed severe bedsores on her right side,” court records state.

The mattress the victim was on also had an indent of her body on it. Medical staff report that the mother was dehydrated, had severe sepsis and that her skin had broken down in several areas. She also had pneumonia and respiratory failure, according to the television station.

Quesenberry acknowledged that she was aware of her mother’s health problems for months and that she did not notify doctors, although she claimed her mother’s condition had worsened just within the last week.

Quesenberry said her mother had not seen a medical professional for about eight years. Court records show the mother’s last hospital visit was back in 2003.

[Feature Photo: Peggy Quesenberry/Regional Jail Authority]