For 83-year-old Rita Kittower, the only thing that helped ease the pain of her husband’s loss was the knowledge that he died a peaceful death at the assisted living facility he had been housed in over the past year. Or at least that’s what she thought.

A few days after burying her spouse of 49 years, Rita received information that turned her world upside down – an anonymous caller told Rita her husband Elmore hadn’t died peacefully in his sleep, but had been beaten to death by a member of the staff at Silverado Senior Living in Calabasas, California, the facility where Elmore had been living. The attacker, the caller said, hit Elmore in the eye, and attempted to suffocate him with a towel.

At first too horrified to contemplate the truth, Rita then contacted the Los Angeles Sheriff Department who asked for permission to exhume her late husband’s body. On November 14, Elmore Kittower’s mortal remains were exhumed from his grave and taken to a coroner’s office for an autopsy. The results, according the Los Angeles Times which carried this report, were inconclusive, but sources say that there did appear to be some trauma to his body that indicated some form of assault.

Already, detectives have been investigating the case and have even arrested one suspect, a staff member at the nursing home who had been suspended from duty recently. Silverado Senior Living denies any charges of wrong doing by staff members and said that the suspect had been terminated for some other offence and not for abusing assisted living residents.

Although it might still be too early to draw any conclusions from the tests, one hopes that the truth will come out quickly, so Rita Kittower can finally lay her husband to rest.

If you have a loved-one who has been the victim of nursing home abuse or neglect, contact the California personal injury lawyers at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.