PORT ORANGE, Fla. – A son who was the sole caretaker for his elderly mother was arrested after officials found the woman dead on a bathroom floor, covered in feces in a filthy trailer, according to the Port Orange Police Department.
Carol Kovacs, whose age was not provided, was found dead on June 8, 2016. Police said she had been naked on the bathroom floor for about a week before her death. She was covered in feces, as was the bathroom floor. Her head was on a feces-covered cushion, police said.
The woman's 52-year-old son, Andrew Kovacs, admitted that the trailer was in deplorable condition and that's why he didn't call for medical assistance when his mother wouldn't get up from the bathroom floor in the week before her death, according to the arrest report. During that time, he fed her a spoonful of yogurt and some pureed spaghetti.
Police said feces marks were visible on carpets and furniture throughout the trailer, dirty dishes were piled in the kitchen, dirty clothes were piled in the bedrooms and the fridge was empty aside from some moldy food and some canned beer.
Carol Kovacs hadn't seen her primary care physician since November 2014, even though she suffered from Alzheimer's disease and high blood pressure, police said.
An autopsy determined she most likely died from hypertensive cardiovascular disease, the medical examiner's office said. She was also suffering from bronchopneumonia and she had a cut on her back from lying on the bathroom tile.
When police returned to the trailer on July 1, 2016 to execute a search warrant, the bathroom had been cleaned, dishes were no longer piled up and the trailer had been swept and mopped.
A search of Andrew Kovacs' electronics found that he had been using his mother's pension and Social Security money to buy food and beer since October 2014, police said. He used that money to supplement the $350 he earned every other week doing part-time online support for U-Haul.
Andrew Kovacs received more than $19,000 from his mother's life insurance company when she died.
Neighbors were shocked and disgusted when they heard about the arrest. They said they Andrew Kovacs was quiet and kept to himself.
"Hope he goes to jail and stays there for life. A person like that don't belong out in society," neighbor Frank Saracina said.
He was arrested Tuesday on aggravated manslaughter of an elderly person and exploitation of an elderly person. He's being held in the Volusia County Jail without bond and a judge has ordered a mental health evaluation.