Couple enter innocent plea in abuse case
FAYETTEVILLE — Two Springdale residents pleaded innocent Wednesday to felony charges related to the death of an incompetent person.
Gary Cannady, 45, and Sandy Cannady, 42, were arrested March 5. They’re charged with manslaughter and endangering the welfare of an incompetent person. They were given a Nov. 19 court date before Circuit Judge Mark Lindsay.
Both were being held Wednesday at the Washington County jail in lieu of $150,000 bond each.
Officers and emergency responders were dispatched to the the Cannadys’ address to investigate an elderly person with multiple injuries all over her body, according to Springdale police.
They found Loretta Mulanex, 78, covered in feces and urine with injuries to her back, arms, legs, bottom, stomach and elsewhere.
Sandy Cannady was adamant emergency responders only check her mother’s vital signs and refused to have her mother taken to a hospital, but she was transported anyway, according to a preliminary police report.
At the hospital, police noted Mulanex’s body was extremely atrophied and hospital staff could not move her arms and legs, according to the report.
Gary Cannady, when interviewed by police, said he knew his mother-in-law needed medical attention but failed to get her any, police said.
Sandy Cannady told police her mother had been lying in a fetal position for at least the last three months, police said. Police said she told them the last time her mother was seen by the doctor was a year and a half ago.
The Cannadys were initially charged with endangering the welfare of an incompetent person. The manslaughter charge was added after Mulanex died the following morning.
Mulanex’s body was sent to the Arkansas State Crime Laboratory in Little Rock for an autopsy to determine the cause and manner of death, according to police.