An elderly St. Petersburg man is dead and his niece is in jail, accused of abusing him.
Police say when Kathleen Densmore called Friday afternoon to report that her 86-year-old uncle had died at home, they were shocked to find the condition he was in.
Robert Densmore was extremely emaciated, weighing only 50 pounds, police said. He had several bed sores on his body and he hadn’t been bathed in two months.
Kathleen told detectives that she and her uncle resided together and she was his legal guardian and sole caregiver for the last several years.
When questioned about his extremely wasted condition, she told police that her uncle suffered from dementia, but she had not sought any medical attention for him in over 5 years.
Investigators said Densmore admitted to feeding her uncle only baby food in recent years and not bathing him because his skin would fall off.
“She (Kathleen) may have been off her rocker,” says next door neighbor Toby Duffield. "But I never really thought her to hurt him."
Neighbors say they hadn’t seen the elderly man in months. They describe his niece as a combative woman.
“Anything could set her off from leaves in her pool," Duffield said. "She would sit out there and curse for hours about leaves in the pool.”
Kathleen Densmore is facing one charge of elderly abuse.