California man charged with murder after elderly mom died of sepsis brought on by his hoarder home: report

A California man has reportedly been charged with murder after his elderly mother died from septic shock that was likely brought on by the squalid conditions in which the pair lived.

Authorities charged Richard Towers of Santa Ana with felony murder and inflicting injury on an elder adult last Wednesday — about three weeks after his 82-year-old mom died on Jan. 25, according to Fox 11 Los Angeles.

Authorities had rushed the woman to the hospital 10 days earlier after Towers called 911 and said his mother wouldn’t wake up, the network said.

Paramedics found the woman with severe wounds on her body that “would have taken weeks to develop” — including a sore so deep that it had exposed the her hipbone, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office said in a press release.

Urine and feces festooned the floors of Towers’ home, which didn’t have running water, Fox said. Cockroaches and other bugs had made a hotel out of the refrigerator where his mom kept her insulin.

“The cruelty involved to allow your own mother to suffer in what undoubtedly was excruciating pain is unconscionable,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a press release.

“This was not accidental oversight by a careless caretaker; this was murder,” Spitzer continued. “The infliction of pain on a defenseless, elderly woman will not be tolerated in our community.”

The DA added that police had previous concerns about the home, and had tried to conduct a welfare check there in December 2023, the news outlet said.

At the time, Towers had barred cops from reaching his mom.

He faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison if convicted, Fox said.