An elderly woman froze to death outside of a Colorado assisted-living center after she wandered outside at night during freezing weather.
Ninety-seven-year-old Mary Jo Staub's family has since filed a lawsuit, laying the blame for her death at the center's door.
According to the filing obtained by the Washington Post, surveillance cameras captured the moment the unsupervised woman walked outside the Balfour at Lavender Farms assisted-living facility in Louisville, Colorado.
She was dressed in just her pajamas, robe, boots and gloves when she was locked out.
It has been reported that she was shown on camera wandering through the snow with her walker, before injuring her ankle. She is also reportedly seen crawling on her hands and knees to the doors in front of the nurse's station, as she left a trail of blood behind her. Per the suit, she banged on the doors so that she would be let back in - to no avail.
She later collapsed an hour later from the cold.
According to the lawsuit, it had taken more than five hours for an employee at the facility to notice she was outside. When the autopsy results were released, it was revealed she had passed away from hypothermia.
"No one at Lavender Farms was monitoring the security cameras that night... not a single Balfour employee noticed Staub was locked out of the facility... not a single Balfour employee was present to help Mary Jo in any way," the complaint stated, as reported by CBS News.
The suit also claims that Balfour employees lied to investigators to "avoid criminal charges"and details a number of allegations including felonious killing and negligence resulting in wrongful death and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
"Assisted living facilities are supposed to provide protective oversight for our elderly loved ones," Elizabeth Hart, the Staub family's attorney, said in a statement. "The Staub family wants to ensure this doesn't happen to any other member of this vulnerable population."
Due to her advanced age, Staub had been contending with confusion, depression and memory loss. It was decided by the facility that she was in need of close monitoring by staff, but her records had allegedly not been updated, according to the filing.
Her family says the facility told them Staub would be checked up on every four hours between 8:00PM and 6:00AM local time.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment carried out an inspection of the facility following the incident and noted a series of violations. The government agency issued eight citations, which were later corrected, CBS News reports.
Elaine McManis with Colorado's Department of Public Health and Environment said in a statement: "As soon as we were notified, we sent experts to the facility to investigate what occurred and ensure the safety of other residents.
"Where we found deficiencies, we required the facility to quickly make changes, and closely monitored the facility until it completed all corrective actions."
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