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Sheriff: Michigan Woman Charged With Abuse Took Better Care Of Pot Plants Than Mom

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Marilyn Shaw (Booking photo)

FLINT (WWJ) - A Flint-area woman stands accused of abusing and neglecting of her own mother in what authorities are calling a shocking case.

Marilyn Shaw, 55, faces vulnerable adult abuse, and marijuana charges, after Genesee County Sheriff's deputies office went to her home in Grand Blanc Township where she was living with her 73-year-old mother for about four years.

Sheriff Robert Pickell said investigators were tipped off by Adult Protective Services.

"We found the victim lying naked on this couch and the couch was soaked in urine and dried feces, and that was embedded in the bed sheets," Pickell said. "She was extremely malnourished weighting only 90 pounds. We learned that she hadn't eaten or had water to drink for approximately 13 and-a-half hours."

Pickell said the mother had ulcers and sores on her body and needs her left leg amputated. She remains hospitalized awaiting the procedure on Monday.

Overall, Pickell called it a "terrible" case.

"It's hard to understand when you see these photos and you see this poor woman," the sheriff told WWJ Newsradio 950's Zahra Huber. "You think you wouldn't be shocked anymore, but you just wonder how one human being could do this to another human being."

Pickell said Shaw was also found to be growing marijuana in the house.

"It's your mother and you're taking better care of the marijuana than you own mother," the sheriff said.  "I mean, it's just hard to believe that this goes on, you know, in a civilized society. Maybe we're not as civilized as I think we are."

Shaw was arraigned Sunday and is being held in the Genesee County jail on a $75,000 cash/surety bond, no 10 percent.

The victim's name is not being released.

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