TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Authorities have arrested a 75-year-old Florida man after an autopsy revealed his bedridden wife died from severe dehydration and malnourishment.
Hillsborough County Sheriff’s officials said in a news release Harold Earl Allen was arrested Monday. He’s being held in the death of his 75-year-old wife Karen Allen, who weighed just 68 pounds when she died in her bed Jan. 6.
An autopsy found she died of a combination of severe dehydration, malnourishment and thrombosis in the veins of her legs.
Officials said Allen, who’s charged with negligent manslaughter, told investigators he was her sole caretaker and that she’d been unable to move for about three weeks before she died. Allen told investigators she last ate the day before she died and she’d not been to a doctor in five years.
Records don’t list a lawyer for Allen.
