KEY WEST, Fla. – Police arrested a man on a felony neglect charge after they said he left his 79-year-old mother hungry and “covered in her own urine” in a wheelchair outside of a Key West hospital Friday.
An arrest report states that officers first spoke to Taylor Benjamin Shanholtz, 54, earlier in the night at Lower Keys Medical Center when he called police about getting a wheelchair. Police said Shanholtz is trespassed from the hospital, located at 5900 College Road.
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About an hour later, police said they came back after hospital staff called them, concerned that his mother was sitting alone in a wheelchair in an ambulance bay. Shanholtz was nowhere to be found.
Authorities said the woman, who is nonverbal and has multiple medical conditions, mouthed “I don’t know what is going on.”
Police said Shanholtz, who his mother paid to take care of her, left her “severely malnourished” and she weighed in at a mere 80 pounds; the two are homeless and have been living in their vehicle for seven months.
The report states that Shanholtz, who has a Cape Coral address, wouldn’t give his mother food or toilet paper. Authorities said she has to communicate with him via text message or iPad.
Police said they’ve had numerous encounters with the pair over the past few months and at one point, the Florida Department of Children and Families had opened a case about the woman.
Authorities said while outside of the hospital, they reached Shanholtz, who goes by his middle name, over the phone.
“I asked Benjamin if he could come back to get his mother and he told me she was not his responsibility and he was not coming back to get her,” a Key West police officer wrote in the arrest report. “I told Benjamin I would be in touch if this was the decision he wanted to make.”
Police said they put out a be-on-the-lookout notice for Shanholtz’s vehicle and a Monroe County deputy pulled him over on Big Pine Key and took him into custody.
Authorities said they also called the DCF abuse hotline again and the agency opened a new case.
As of Monday, jail records show that Shanholtz, whose mugshot appears to have been taken from a hospital bed, was being held on a $10,000 bond.
The DCF urges people who suspect a case of elder abuse or neglect to call its abuse hotline at 1-800-962-2873 or, if the senior is in immediate danger, 911. Abuse can also be reported online.