ANKENY, Iowa — The Polk County Sheriff's Office says a live-in caretaker is responsible for the April death of an Ankeny man.
The Iowa Department of Health and Human Services began an investigation in May 2023 and deemed 73-year-old Ray Crammond's living conditions "devastating," the sheriff's office said in a release. Crammond died in late April and the home he was living in was "found to be extremely dirty and un-kept."
A criminal complaint states that 61-year-old Diana Lynn Becker-Abeyta denied Crammond medications and did not bathe, feed or hydrate him.
The sheriff's office's release says Becker-Abeyta was an unlicensed "live-in caretaker." She was arrested in June for Financial Exploitation of an Older Individual and Neglect of a Dependent Person, but was out of jail before being arrested Wednesday for Murder in the Second Degree in Crammond's death.
"..the cause of death for Mr. Crammond's death was Pneumonia due to Klebsiella pneumoniae Infection and the manner of his death was a homicide," the sheriff's office added.
Becker-Abeyta is being held without bond at the Polk County Jail.