WARRENSVILLE HEIGHTS, Ohio — Warrensville Heights police said they are investigating how an elderly woman ended up dead 10 hours after she went missing from a skilled nursing facility.
Alvera Meuti, 84, was found outside of the Avenue at Warrensville Care & Rehabilitation Center around 7:30 a.m. on Christmas Eve.
According to a Warrensville Heights police report obtained by News 5 Investigators, the woman was last seen by a nurse at 8:40 p.m. on Dec. 23.
The nurse told police that Meuti "seemed normal and was talking while sitting in her wheelchair."
Then, another nurse was assigned to Meuti.
At 9:30 p.m., the second nurse noticed Meuti was "not in her room."
However, she failed to alert anyone about her absence.
She told police she assumed Meuti went for a visit with her brother, even though the visitors' log showed "no visitors came inside the hospital to visit Alvera."
Around 12:30 a.m., the nurse said she "attempted to call" Meuti's brother "multiple times," but he did not answer.
The report said the nurse repeatedly stated, "she is a new nurse... and was not sure what to do after that."
At 6:30 a.m., the nurse said she told a colleague that Meuti was missing, according to the report.
The colleague quickly issued a "Code Purple," which is used to sweep the building and alert authorities when a patient goes missing.
The report said an officer arrived at approximately 7:30 a.m.
While waiting for the facility's administrator, he heard screams.
He wrote that nurses led him outside to the center's patio, where they found "Alvera laying on her back."
The officer wrote that she was "unresponsive" and cold to the touch."
Meuti was taken to South Pointe Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's website lists her cause of death as "Environmental exposure with hypothermia."
So how did the 84-year-old woman, who could not walk without assistance, end up outside the facility alone?
The facility's administrator told police that the security cameras only captured common areas, so they failed to capture Meuti.
The administrator also told police their doors have alarms that sound when a door is opened, but staff members do not receive notifications when the alarms go off.
We called the Avenue at Warrensville Care & Rehabilitation Center for a comment Thursday morning.
No one returned our call.
Warrensville Heights officials declined our requests for an on-camera interview.
They said the police investigation is ongoing.
