HUNTINGDON- A blind woman who suffered from dementia was found dead in a creek after apparently walking away from a Blairs Mills care home sometime Tuesday or Wednesday, state police at Huntingdon said.
Her caretaker is facing criminal charges.
Sally Jean Fultz, 70, was a resident, along with four other individuals, of Sleepy Hollow Personal Care Center, 15742 Hotel Road, police said.
A neighbor found Fultz in a creek about 100 yards from the facility on Wednesday, police said.
Huntingdon County Coroner Paul J. Sharum said an autopsy was performed Wednesday, and a cause of death is pending the results.
Connie Ann Souders, 62, who was paid to provide Fultz with shelter and care, was arraigned on charges of neglect of care of a dependent person and involuntary manslaughter before Magisterial District Judge Douglas Gummo on Wednesday, police said.
Police said Souders "failed to preserve the health, safety or welfare required for the victim," resulting in her death.
Souders was placed in the Huntingdon County Jail in lieu of $100,000 bail, police said.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. Tuesday.
According to a 2011 annual report on adult residential licensing from the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare, Sleepy Hollow in Huntingdon faced one administrative fine.
The report did not detail why the home was not in compliance and warranted the fine. But the report did explain that an administrative fine process was implemented in 2009 as an additional enforcement tool to compel regulatory compliance.
A phone message left at the home Wednesday evening was not returned.
An obituary appearing in the Lewistown Sentinel listed Fultz's home address as Milroy. She is survived by a brother, Gerald L. Fultz of Reedsville.
She was a 1960 graduate of Kishacoquillas High School, Reedsville, and a member of the White Memorial Church, Milroy, it said. She had worked at the Arrow Shirt Company and Lewistown Hospital snack shop.
A funeral service will be held Friday at 2 p.m. at Bohn Funeral Home, 55 N. Main St., Reedsville. Friends will be received from 1 p.m. until the service.
