Gwinnett Woman Left To Be Eaten Alive By Roaches, Maggots: Police

GWINNETT COUNTY, GA — A Gwinnett County woman was found being eaten alive by cockroaches and maggots, bedridden on a sheet smeared in feces, according to a police report. Gwinnett County Fire and Emergency Services responded to the Sugar Hill home, on Pine Tree Circle, after receiving a call for medical help.

Her husband and son, Terry Sorrells, 54, and Christian Sorrells, 18, have been charged with neglect of a disabled or elderly person.

Tracie Sorrells was unresponsive but still alive.

When the fire crew arrived, they saw maggots and roaches eating at Tracie Sorrells' flesh, and her legs were completely black and showed signs of decomposition. She had been transported a month earlier with a “mega mover,” which is described as a tarp-like object used by emergency medical technicians to move obese patients. She was still on the same mega mover, which was completely brown and black and covered in feces. The fire crew called police because they did not believe she would live much longer and felt a moral obligation to report this, according to the report.

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According to the report, living conditions inside the home were deplorable. The officer said he was overwhelmed with the smell of human feces and garbage. He reported that roaches were crawling on the walls and ceiling of every room. Garbage lined the floor from the entryway to the kitchen and covered the floor of the bathroom. In one of the bedrooms, there was a two-foot-high pile of empty Monster energy drink cans, with garbage piled in a closet and covering a dresser, the report says.

Terry Sorrells accompanied his wife in an ambulance before the officer arrived, but Christian Sorrells remained at the house. He told the officer that Tracie Sorrells had been bedridden for one or two years and had been progressively getting worse. She had been admitted to a long-term care facility, but returned home after Medicaid would not cover the cost. Christian Sorrells told the officer that no one in the house had a job.

Christian Sorrells was transported to Gwinnett County police headquarters and Terry Sorrells was arrested later that day. Both were booked into the Gwinnett County Detention Center. Terry Sorrells remains in jail, held on a $22,200 bond.

Photo of Terry Sorrells courtesy Gwinnett County Police Department