‘Don’t lose our mother’: Woman wanders far from home at memory care facility, found dead days later

ATLANTA, Ga. (InvestigateTV) - When Patricia Miele’s family moved her into Greenwood Place Assisted Living and Memory Care in Marietta, GA this past October, they trusted the 89-year-old was in good hands. They said the facility came highly recommended.

Miele moved from Connecticut to Georgia years ago to be closer to her family and two grandchildren. The former schoolteacher and devout Catholic lived by her routines, which involved prayer and meals. She didn’t even have a television in her room.

“Pat was a voracious reader and had a deep faith and understanding of her place in the world,” said son-in-law Garrett Phillips.

Miele’s daughter, Karen Phillips, said the facility should have known her mother’s mental health was on the decline. According to her, Miele once mistook a fire alarm for an elevator button while living at Greenwood Place. Then there was the time when she accidentally locked herself in her room.

Karen Phillips also re a nurse called to share that her mother repeatedly expressed fear of getting lost.

“She didn’t know where she was going and needed help,” she said. “They knew that.”

Her Worst Nightmare Came True

Just 22 days after being itted, Phillips says Miele’s worst nightmare came true when she somehow wandered away from the assisted living facility and never returned.

Greenwood Place’s director called 911 on November 9, 2024, just before 9:30 a.m. to report her disappearance. According to an audio recording of the call obtained through a public records request, the facility’s director claimed the last time staff saw Miele was sometime after receiving her medication at 8:00 a.m.

“They have done a full sweep of the property, and we cannot locate her,” the director - who was not identified in the 911 call - told dispatchers.

“She has been very confused lately and we’re concerned.”

The Marietta Police Department launched a massive search using drones, K-9 units and asked local media outlets to get the word out. Investigators said the facility did not have security cameras to help aid in the response.

Two and a half days later, a concerned citizen found Miele’s body floating in a pond inside Kennesaw Memorial Park, a cemetery less than a mile from the facility where she went missing.

Karen Phillips said during the search, they received inconsistent timelines when Miele was last seen.

“There’s someone who knows what really happened,” Karen Phillips told InvestigateTV hours after identifying her mother’s body.

“Someone who was onsite there that night, knows what he or she did or did not do.”

The operator of Greenwood Place, TerraBella Senior Living, declined interview requests.

In a statement, Heidi LaVanway, a company spokesperson, said it was committed to maintaining a safe and ive environment.

“We are fully cooperating with law enforcement and providing all necessary information to their efforts,” LaVanway said. “While respecting privacy and legal considerations, we remain committed to open communication.”

Similar Disappearances Happening at Other Facilities

Our investigators uncovered situations such as Miele’s disappearance - which regulators call “elopements” - have happened hundreds of times across the country at nursing homes and assisted living facilities over the past few years.

Between 2020 and August 2024, state health officials have conducted more than 1,300 inspections where they found serious violations that named elopement failures or risks of nursing home residents potentially wandering off that put their lives in jeopardy, according to an analysis of ProPublica’s Nursing Home Inspect data collected from each state.

More than 85% of these inspections were triggered by a complaint that a resident had wandered off – or was a serious flight risk. The other 15% were discovered during routine, planned inspections.

Nationally, there are about 15,000 nursing homes; more than 1,100 of them have been cited for serious elopement violations, according to ProPublica’s data.

At 138 of these facilities, health officials issued citations after at least two separate inspections for these life-threatening elopement violations. Thirteen facilities were cited three times.

Other Cases including Elopement-related Deaths

In Mesa, Arizona, in 2022, an 88-year-old woman wandered from a nursing home and later was found dead in a dry canal. She died of heat exposure.

A woman at a facility near Eu Claire, Wisconsin, was found dead facedown in the snow earlier this year.

In Arkansas in 2023, a woman wandered from a facility and was missing for 13 days before her body was found in a wooded area near the assisted-living home. She had wandered away the same day she moved in.

Many of These Facilities Deal with Staffing Issues

In Georgia, state regulators cited at least six facilities for the most serious violations of elopement-related cases over the past three years. Nearly half of those were also cited for staffing shortages. The records only include nursing homes, not assisted living facilities like the one where Miele lived.

The Georgia Department of Community Affairs cited Miele’s assisted living home at least three times for staffing issues, months before she went missing.

‘Staffing is always the issue,” said Mike Prieto, an attorney who specializes in nursing home litigation in Georgia. He represents Miele’s family and plans to file a future lawsuit against Greenwood Place’s operators. “You can’t have continuity of care when you have a constant turnover of these care providers,” he said.

According to Seniory.com an industry think tank, Georgia ranked as the nation’s third worst state for elder care staffing in 2023. To address the problem, President Joe Biden’s istration proposed federal staffing mandates, including requiring at least one ed nurse staffed 24/7 at nursing homes that recieve federal subsidies.

“Medicare is going to set higher standards for nursing homes and make sure your loved ones get the care they deserve and expect,” Biden said in his 2022 State of the Union speech.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a final rule on the staffing requirements in April 2024. The implementation of the new staffing standards will occur in phases over three to five years depending on whether the facility is located in an urban or rural area.

“The final rule was informed by extensive engagement with residents, workers, providers, and experts, including those we have had the privilege of meeting with directly,” a CMS spokesperson said.

Nursing Home Industry Responds to Staffing Requirements

After the federal agency announced its mandates, multiple groups that represent the nursing home industry criticized the decision.

In June 2024, the American Health Care Association filed a lawsuit against CMS and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, hoping to reverse the new rule.

“[I]mposing a nationwide, multi-billion-dollar, unfunded mandate at a time when nursing homes are already struggling with staffing shortages and financial constraints will only make the situation worse,” the lawsuit said.

The Georgia Health Care Association, which lobbies for nursing home providers, has also campaigned to stop Biden’s mandates, claiming they would cost the Georgia nursing home industry $187 million a year, and that finding enough staff would be impossible.

The organization did not respond to interview requests for this story, but did share its frustration about the mandate with InvestigateTV’s Atlanta in 2023.

“It’s really tone deaf at a time when we’re in a shortage and that shortage has been exacerbated by COVID,” said Chris Downing, the association’s chief financial officer.

“Now they come in with a proposal with an additional staff.”

CMS said it does not comment on pending litigation.

Tips on Helping Locate Missing Individuals with Dementia

To help law enforcement find missing individuals with dementia faster, companies have developed a simple, yet effective way to aid in searches. Scent kits store a person’s unique odor in a sealed container for K-9 responders to immediately start their search.

According to one company that supplies the kits, Scent Evidence, the individual’s odor is collected by swiping an individual’s armpit using a sterile gauze pad. It’s then stored in a glass jar with a tamper proof seal. The company says it can last up to ten years.

Some families are also turning to technology created by Apple to keep track of the elderly. AirTags are often used to help locate lost items, like a wallet, luggage or keys. The devices are increasingly being used to help keep track of seniors and children with autism.

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