A Michigan nursing home worker has been arrested after he was allegedly caught beating an elderly Alzheimer’s patient and stealing his and stealing her wedding ring.
Stacey Tirrell Mercer, 31, is facing Elder Abuse in the 4th Degree and Unarmed Robbery after beating and stealing a wedding ring from a 69-year-old Alzheimer’s patient, Kristine Tracy, under his care, police say.
Local police confirmed that Mercer was a worker at West Bloomfield’s Villa at Green Lake Estates where the attacks took place.
The patient’s husband of almost fifty years became suspicious when his wife began to exhibit bruising on her face, reported Fox 2. The nursing home passed off the injuries as a “fall,” merely days after she was admitted to the nursing home facility on July 11.
“They don’t let them fall on their [expletive] on their head. They don’t do that,” Kristine’s husband, Stan, said before declaring that she would never have taken off her wedding ring, even while suffering from a debilitating disease like Alzheimer’s.
“It’ the longest memory the two of us have. She never took it off,” he said. “Honestly, I would’ve liked to of gone in there and grabbed people by the throat and shaken them.”
Police confirmed Stan’s fears shortly afterward when footage proved that Kristine had sustained her injuries by the hand of one of the workers.
“So this incident actually came to our attention on July, 15, the victim’s husband came in stated that he had just seen her at a local hospital and she had a contusion above her right eye, and there was a lot of scratches around her ring finger so he’s obviously concerned for her welfare,” said Deputy Chief Curtis Lawson with West Bloomfield Police, according to Click On Detroit.
“We looked into it right away and found out that the incident itself actually happened on July 11 at a local nursing home here within West Bloomfield, our detectives began the investigation,” Lawson added. “They determined pretty quickly who the suspect was, they obtained video from the facility itself and they actually watched as the individual on several occasions tried to remove the ring from our victims finger, and in doing so, roughed up our victim and allegedly caused injuries to our finger.”
The Villa at Green Lake Estates will now be sued following the incident.
Greg Rohl, the attorney suing Villa at Green Lake Estates, asked: “What goes through someone’s mind to take advantage of an Alzheimer’s victim, 67 years old, tear off a ring that’s been on her finger since 1971?”
Police still have not released any footage of the abuse.
The incident draws eerily similar parallels to a shocking video to emerge from another Michigan nursing home facility where a young man repeatedly beat an elderly dementia patient–with the incidents believed to quicken the patient’s passing.
