BONDURANT, Iowa — An Ankeny woman has been sentenced to two years probation in connection to the 2022 death of a memory care facility patient.
Court documents show Catherine Forkpa of pleaded guilty to Dependent Adult Abuse Resulting in Injury after being charged in the January 2022 death of Lynne Harriet Stewart.
The sentencing comes almost two years after Stewart was found on the ground outside of Courtyard Estates at Hawthorne Crossing in Bondurant. Stewart was conscious when first responders arrived, but later died at a local hospital.
According to a criminal complaint, Stewart left the building and couldn't get back in due to the security system locking the door behind her.
Detectives determined Forkpa, an employee at the facility, was not carrying an iPad that sent notifications when an alarm went off in the memory care unit. Had Forkpa been carrying the iPad, she could've been alerted when Stewart left the building.
The door was in alarm mode for almost seven hours before Stewart was found. Temperatures that night were as low as -8 degrees, according to the criminal complaint. Stewart's autopsy indicated her cause of death was hypothermia and cardiac arrest.
Forkpa initially faced a second-degree murder charge before pleading down to dependent adult abuse. In addition to probation, she is also ordered to pay a civil penalty of $855.
As a condition of her probation, Forkpa will not be employed at any facility housing dependent adults.