Relatives could face more charges

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) -- Prosecutors will review autopsy results before deciding whether to file additional charges against three relatives of an elderly Lincoln woman who died after being left in a urine- and feces-soaked bed for eight days.

Police Capt. David Beggs said Betty Wickline, 77, died at a nursing home on Monday. He would not comment on the circumstances.

Wickline's daughter, 53-year-old Sheryl Dunn, has been charged with abuse of a vulnerable adult. No trial date has been set.

Dunn's daughter, Francis Wilson, 20, and the daughter's husband, Jonathan Wilson, 24, have been charged as accessories. Their preliminary hearings are scheduled for April 2.

According to a police affidavit filed to support arrest warrants, Dunn and the Wilsons told police that Wickline had fallen in a bathroom on Jan. 3 and that they helped her to bed.

Medical technicians and officers summoned by another relative found Wickline in the filthy bed on Jan. 11, incapacitated because of a fractured hip and infected foot.

Wickline apparently was hospitalized, but it wasn't clear for how long, before she was returned to the nursing home.

The affidavit says Dunn told police that she didn't seek medical aid for her mother because her mother wanted to die at home. The affidavit also says the Wilsons told police that aid wasn't sought because Wickline was uninsured.

A spokesman for the Lancaster County attorney's office, Joe Kelly, said Tuesday that the office didn't yet have a copy of the autopsy results. He said prosecutors must review those results before deciding whether any new charges are merited in light of Wickline's death.

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