Tuesday, April 29, 2008
The woman had left the home and locked herself out before.
LIBERTY — Township police say the death of an 87-year-old woman, found on her front porch Monday morning, was an accident.
Mary Rush, of Mansell Drive, was found on her front porch, unconscious with severe lacerations, just after 7 a.m. Monday. Police say the porch area was covered in blood. A large rock was also found by a nearby broken window.
She was taken to a hospital by the Liberty Fire Department and pronounced dead.
Capt. Richard Tisone said officers at first suspected foul play but soon changed that assessment.
“Word had gotten out that the victim had been beaten, but from what we have gathered from the scene and the coroner’s report, that is not the case,” said Tisone. “Basically what we learned is that she locked herself out of the house and while trying to get back in the house, she cut herself and bled. The cause of death was actually hypothermia.”
According to Tisone, police received two phone calls from one of Rush’s neighbors, saying someone outside was crying out. The calls came hours before she was found on the porch.
Police Chief Anthony Slifka said two police units were sent to the area at 3:12 a.m. after the first call but did not find anything unusual. He said three cars were sent to the area at 3:53 a.m. when the same neighbor called police to say the crying out had continued. Officers still did not find anything amiss.
Slifka said there was a rainstorm and the responding officers did not get out and search the area on foot. They did drive through and search the area repeatedly but did not hear any cries for help. He said it’s important to note that Rush may have been walking around the area and not in a place where officers would have seen her.
“We had three officers over there. They checked the area. The neighbor who called us was three houses away on the other side of the street, at least 500 feet away. No other neighbors heard anything and no one else called,” he said.
Mary Lou Griffith, who has lived on Mansell Drive since 1994, said she’d known Rush for 15 years.
Griffith said she couldn’t believe it when she heard what happened, and although she was home last night, she didn’t hear anything unusual.
“I got up a couple times last night,” she said. “I just keep asking myself why I didn’t look out the window.’”
It wasn’t until about 8:30 a.m. Monday that Griffith noticed the police cars outside Rush’s house.
“I got up, went to get my coffee, and then I opened up the blinds and saw the cop cars,” she said.
Recently Griffith and several other neighbors had been lending Rush an extra hand.
“Usually when she needs help, she knocks on our door. I don’t know why she didn’t come over and ask for help,” Griffith said. “She was a very good lady, such a wonderful person.”
Slifka also said neighbors had been helping Rush, whom he said suffered from a form of dementia, with various tasks. He said Rush had locked herself out of her house on several occasions in the last week, once cutting herself trying to get back in.
“I feel bad for her that this happened like this. It really is unfortunate,” said Slifka. “The lady should not have been left alone, but the neighbors were really helping her out and looking out for her.”