Caregivers Who Allegedly Tortured Autistic Woman To Death Were Paid $250,000 By New Mexico To Care For Her

An autistic woman in New Mexico endured “torture” from her caregivers before she died. According to officials, the caregivers were paid by the state to care for her.

Three people were arrested for the “extreme abuse and neglect” of Mary Melero, 38, who was discovered in the back of a van that the caregivers were taking across the Texas border into Mexico in February.

At the time she was found, Melero was unresponsive and unable to stand. She was taken to a hospital where doctors found that she had pneumonia, wounds across her body, bedsores and ulcers. She was also in septic shock due to infection and suffered cardiac arrest at the hospital. She died on April 7.

The caregivers, Angelita Chacon, 52, and Patricia Hurtado, 42, were charged with false imprisonment, abuse or neglect and failure to report. Luz Scott, who owned the van Melero was discovered in, was also charged with false imprisonment.

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Chacon and Hurtado were contracted with At Home Advocacy and three other agencies, which collected $250,000 in state money to care for the woman for the three years before her death. The caregivers received $5,000 per month.

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez said At Home Advocacy was required to conduct monthly home checks. A representative for the agency stated that “body checks” were not performed during the check-in, and the staff didn’t notice any injuries at the time.

The money came from a state program to provide community-based services to developmentally and intellectually disabled individuals as opposed to institutionalization. As a result of the case, Torez advocated for additional resources to train providers and provide oversight staff for the 7,000 people currently receiving care.