HAWLEY, Pa. – A Pennsylvania woman has been charged in connection with the death of her mother, two months after the body was found, according to WNEP.
Moira Richey, 52, who is charged with abuse of corpse, forgery, and theft, refused to answer questions and covered her face on the way out of district court Tuesday.
Richey allegedly allowed her 80-year-old mother's body to decompose after the elder Richey died in a Honesdale bed-and-breakfast.
She's also charged with forgery and theft after troopers say she withdrew money from Patricia Richey's bank account in May, long after her mother's death.
Investigators found Patricia Richey's body in the third-floor bedroom at the Harvest Inn in June after the owners discovered the skeletal remains.
In court, Richey said she lived with her mother for the past five years, even staying with her at a nursing home and then at the inn in Honesdale.
An autopsy found that Patricia Richey had broken ribs and was so badly decomposed that a pathologist couldn't determine how or when she died but it could have been up to several months prior to the grisly discovery in June.
Moira Richey is locked up facing abuse of corpse, forgery, and theft.
