43-pound woman found in Michigan home

updated 11:10 p.m. ET Dec. 16, 2006

FLINT, Mich. - A 22-year-old developmentally disabled woman weighing only 43 pounds was found in a bedroom at her mother’s home, and the mother was charged with abusing her, authorities said.

The woman was wearing only a T-shirt and four soiled diapers on a mattress stained with urine and feces, The Flint Journal reported Saturday. She was taken to Hurley Medical Center on Wednesday, where she was stable.

“It’s just appalling,” prosecutor David Leyton said.

The woman’s mother, Theresa E. Terrell, 43, was charged with second-degree abuse of a vulnerable adult. A judge set cash bond at $25,000, and she was being held at the Genesee County Jail Saturday evening.

If convicted, she could be sentenced to up to four years in prison.

Police found the malnourished woman when they went to the house to look for a man in an unrelated assault complaint. Officers were searching the second floor when they were overwhelmed by a foul odor, Leyton said.

There was no response to a call seeking additional comment Saturday from Leyton’s staff.

Jail records did not indicate whether Terrell had an attorney.

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