Arizona woman finds her elderly uncle’s ‘hollowed’ body in a seniors home after staff ignored him for days

An Arizona woman was left reeling after she found her elderly uncle’s “hollow” body lying in a chair at his assisted living facility — and she claims staff didn’t bother to check on him for nearly a week.

Angela Bourne made the shocking discovery when she went to visit her uncle, 75-year-old Gerald McClellan – whom she lovingly considered her second father – at his studio apartment at LifeStream in Sun City on October 16. According to the AZ family.

When her usual cheerful greeting, “Uncle, I’m here,” was met with silence, her niece stepped inside and was met with a terrifying sight.

“He looked like a skeleton in a chair,” Bourne told the outlet, adding that “the face and eyes were hollow.”

“He didn’t even look like a person because he’d been there so long. No one should have seen that. I just remember running out of the room and running to the front desk and asking her when was the last time I checked on him.”

But it had been at least four days since anyone had checked on him, his distraught niece was told.

Bourne – now plagued with guilt – moved her uncle to the Sun City facility in January after his wife died. She chose the location and paid $1,700 a month in rent, believing she had safeguards to prevent tragedies like this from ever happening, the outlet reported.

One of those safety measures was a daily check-in button installed in each room that residents were expected to press each morning to let staff know they were safe, Bourne said.

“Every day by 10 a.m., a staff member was supposed to contact him or come to check on him,” explained a shaken Waddell resident.

“He didn’t push the button; they tried to contact him, they couldn’t contact him, and they still didn’t go to check on him. It wasn’t one day, it wasn’t two, it wasn’t three days, it was four.”

Local authorities later confirmed that McClellan had likely been dead for three to four days before anyone at the independent living center called 911, according to the news station.

“LifeStream at Sun City is deeply saddened by the passing of one of our residents,” the facility said in a statement to the outlet.

“Our heartfelt condolences and prayers go out to their families and loved ones during this difficult time. Out of respect for the family’s privacy, we are not sharing further details at this time.”