Daughter on trial for manslaughter in death of 96-year-old Toronto mom
· Toronto Sun
Eva Samanos began to weep and covered her eyes as disturbing photos of her elderly mother, covered in rotting, bone-exposed bedsores, were displayed at her trial.
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Samanos has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter, criminal negligence causing death and failing to provide the necessaries of life in the Jan. 6, 2024 death of her 96-year-old mother, Visiliki Atanasovski, at her judge-alone trial where she is representing herself.
Paramedic Timothy Driver testified he was responding to Samanos’s 911 call and arrived at the Broadview Ave. address where she lived with her mom to find a house that resembled that of a “hoarder”: the floors and counters were covered in debris and garbage bags stacked three to four feet high with a strong odour of “rotting food” and human waste.
As Driver was shown photos of the overcrowded home, Samanos told Superior Court Justice Jane Kelly that her basement had flooded and she had to move a lot of her belongings upstairs.
Once the paramedics could find their way to Atanasovski through the clutter, he said they found a naked, elderly woman on the living room floor with her head and shoulders propped against a sofa. Driver said Samanos told him her mother, who had dementia, had been on the floor for three days.
He noted the daughter “did not appear overly concerned, kind of a nonchalant approach.”
The elderly woman was dirty and sitting in a pool of urine and feces, Driver testified. He couldn’t find a pulse and her heart was arrhythmic. She was “incredibly sick.”
Driver testified that when they rolled her over to place her on a tarp to carry her out, the paramedic saw she was suffering from “profound tissue breakdown” from the middle of her back to her tailbone where the skin had worn down to the bone.
Officer testified they smelled of ‘rotting fish’
An officer who later took photos of her injuries testified they smelled of “rotting flesh” and “decomposition.”
Driver said Samanos told him she’d asked a neighbour to help lift her mom off the floor, but they weren’t comfortable moving her and told her to call 911 instead. He then asked why she hadn’t called earlier.
“I don’t remember getting an answer to that question,” he said.
When the paramedic learned Samanos was the woman’s primary caregiver, he suspected elder abuse and reported it to Toronto Police.
Samanos was arrested at Michael Garron Hospital where her mother had been taken, and charged with criminal negligence causing bodily harm. The charges were upgraded after Atanasovski died the following day.
The trial continues.