MI Caregiver Convicted After Elderly Woman Freezes To Death

CLINTON TOWNSHIP, MI — A Clinton County jury convicted a Michigan caregiver of second-degree vulnerable adult abuse after an elderly woman froze to death in December 2022, according to the Michigan Attorney General's Office.

A snowplow driver found the 82-year-old woman buried in snow in a Clinton County parking lot at roughly 7 a.m. on Dec. 23, 2022, according to officials.

The woman was taken to a nearby hospital where she died from hypothermia, according to officials.

Investigators do not know how long the elderly woman was buried in the snow, according to officials.

Colleen Kelly O’Connor, 58, of East Lansing, was the elderly woman's caregiver at the Vista Springs Imperial Park at Timber Ridge, which is an assisted living facility in Clinton County, according to officials.

Officials said during the two and a half day trial that O’Connor twice saw the elderly woman try to go outside without appropriate attire into a blizzard with single-digit temperatures, subzero windchill and blowing and drifting snow in the very early morning hours of December 23, 2022.

Prosecutors said as a caregiver, O’Connor recklessly failed to act to prevent the elderly woman from going outdoors into the storm, resulting in her death.

O’Connor is scheduled to be sentenced on July 29. She faces up to four years in prison.