SAN ANTONIO — Reader Discretion Advised: The conditions alleged in the affidavit are graphic and disturbing
Deputies sent to a Luling hospital to check on the condition of a disabled person found the tiny woman in dire straights.
An affidavit for the arrest of the 32-year-old’s mother says 48-year-old Felisa Ann Sepulveda brought her daughter to the hospital Feb. 28, claiming that the frail woman had a cough that had lasted over seven days.
But the medical personnel who admitted the victim told investigators she was suffering with pneumonia, dehydration and many serious health complications.
Detectives wrote that medical personnel had compared the condition of the victim to a “concentration camp survivor” who arrived weighing 55 pounds.
The injuries detailed in the court document are disturbing, starting with the allegation that the woman “had been in a severe caloric deficit” for an extended period of time.
The affidavit claims medical staff said when the woman was brought to the hospital she was covered in dried feces they described as “caked on.”
They said they found feces in her hair, deep inside her ears and under her fingernails and toenails, as well as covering the rest of her body, and that her gums are rotted.
Her clothing, they said, “had dirt and dried animal and human feces, urine and blood on them.”
Bed sores are described, with an explanation that they were in different stages of healing and due to the victim laying in the same position for extended periods of time.
Doctors said Sepulveda claimed her daughter is ambulatory and can sit up on her own and feed herself, but they went on to refute those claims, saying the woman does not have muscular definition to sit up and would be unable to walk due to her emaciated state.
The affidavit states, “The doctor also advised that there was no medical reason for (the woman’s) emaciation and malnutrition.
The woman’s prognosis would have been death without medical intervention, the doctors said, because of the malnutrition, dehydration and pneumonia.
Investigators said when they interviewed Sepulveda she reported the daughter had not seen a physician since 2018, and that she has not had a bath or shower in over five years.
Sepulveda claimed that she would clean the woman with wipes and she went on to say that her daughter had not eaten for the two previous days.
The affidavit states the unemployed mother claims to be the stay at home caretaker for the daughter, while her husband works as a truck driver, saying she also oversees care of a 27-year-old intellectually disabled brother.
Sepulveda is charged with the offense of injury to a disabled person – intentionally and knowingly. Investigators allege Sepulveda failed to provide protection, food or medical care causing serious bodily injury.
She remains in the Guadalupe County Jail. Her bond has been set at $300,000. Online records do not indicate when Sepulveda’s next court appearance will be.