Abused woman, 87, was ‘barely’ kept alive

By Matt Pordum

Thursday, July 28, 2005 | 11:12 a.m.

If not for a Henderson Police officer's decision to investigate a suspicious van on the side of the road in January, no one might ever have known what happened to 87-year-old Carol Dalton.

Officer Michelle Rosener found Dalton suffering from dementia, malnourishment, dehydration and bed sores covering her entire limp body as she lay in the back of the van, amid garbage and her own urine.

Prosecutors allege Dalton's condition was the result of abuse inflicted by 58-year-old Robert Healy. Dalton has since died, and Healy is now facing second-degree murder charges and two felony counts of abuse of the elderly.

Sources close to the case said they believe that Healy was "just barely keeping Dalton alive so he could live off her Social Security checks."

Healy was indicted previously on the abuse charges, and a superseding indictment was returned Wednesday to include the murder charge.

He is scheduled for arraignment on Aug. 3 before District Judge Donald Mosley.

According to the indictment, Rosener said she spotted Healy and three other men Jan. 30 standing next to a car in a dirt lot across from the closed-down Alystra Hotel in the area of Sunset Road and Boulder Highway.

Because the lot tended to be a dumping ground for stolen vehicles, Rosener pulled in to check things out.

She said one of the men, Healy, quickly walked away from her as she got out of her patrol car and went into a van, shut the door and started it. The officer said she quickly called for backup, and when the additional officers arrived she knocked several times on the van.

Rosener said Healy finally emerged and told the officer "Carol is in there (the van), she's sleeping."

Healy told the officer he had been dating Dalton for "about nine years." and when Rosener went to see if Dalton was OK, Healy attempted to stop her, saying "she's sleeping, don't wake her up."

Once backup officers escorted Healy to the front of the vehicle, Rosener entered the van through the passenger door and moved a curtain to the side, which revealed Dalton "laying naked on a tarp on a raised bed."

"She had major injuries to her foot that looked like gangrene, some open sores," Rosener said to the grand jury. "I went in there, and I said, 'Carol.' She just groaned."

The officers immediately called for medical assistance. Rosener said some of the sores were as big as tennis balls and were "oozing" with "blood as well as pus" when Dalton was pulled out of the van.

Rosener said the "smell inside the van was extremely strong" and she and other officers were forced to put on protective masks as they investigated the rest of the van.

"It was very close to the smell of death, and that's what I thought I had at that point," Rosener said.

At the end of the officers' search of the vehicle, they determined it was obvious that the van was the only home Dalton had at the time, according to the transcript.

During the investigation, Rosener said, Healy fidgeted with his pockets and kept trying to move away from her patrol car. After emptying his pockets, she found a State Farm insurance card with Carol Dalton's name.

She said Healy said he and Dalton had been living in the van at the lot for roughly a week and that "he was her caregiver."

Henderson Police Detective Rodrigo Pena later interviewed Healy the day of the incident. Pena said Healy told him Dalton had been his "common-law wife of approximately nine years."

The detective said Healy told him he had taken Dalton to "various medical locations" throughout the area, but upon arriving at such places, he said, Dalton would cry and would not get out of the van to receive any medical treatment.

Healy also told Pena that Dalton ate what Healy regularly ate and that she drank V-8 juice.