A 93-year-old woman who died Sunday morning was outside for more than three hours before being found by staff, Windsor Locks police said Wednesday. Temperatures were around 0 degrees.
According to a statement from Lt. Paul Cherniak, Margaret Healey, an Alzheimer’s patient and resident at Bickford Health Care Center in Windsor Locks, left the building at approximately 1:50 a.m. on Feb. 8.
Staff have told police that they didn’t know Healey was missing from her bed until 4:45 a.m., at which time they started searching for her, first inside the building and then outside. When they eventually found her, police said, she was unresponsive in the snow about 40 feet from the building. Staff brought a wheelchair to bring her back inside, where they used blankets and tried to bring up her body temperature, Cherniak has said.
It was about 5:07 a.m. when staff found her, Cherniak said Wednesday. He previously told media that police were not called until 6:23 a.m. EMTs on the scene pronounced Healey dead at 6:46 a.m. at the long-term care facility.
The Office of the Chief State Medical Examiner said Monday that her cause of death is “Pending Further Studies” and the manner of her death is “Pending Investigation.”
Cherniak previously said that police were working to determine what happened during the gaps of time between when Healey went to bed, when staff discovered her missing and when police were called.
CT facility where woman, 93, died had been fined for safety violations. She was found in the snow.
Police should have been called immediately, he told media at a press conference, and if family has reason to have questions about how events occurred.
Both the Windsor Locks Police and the state’s Department of Public Health are investigating the incident.
Cherniak said Tuesday that police had also discovered through video surveillance how Healey had gotten out of the facility.
Healey was known to wander, as is common to Alzheimer’s patients, and was equipped with an alert device designed to set off an alarm if she left certain areas, police said. Police were working to determine whether the device failed to set off the alarm or whether staff failed to hear it.
Video surveillance of Bickford’s showed that Healey exited the facility through an employee entrance at the rear of the building. That door is not equipped with the alert system equipment, police said, “but is designed to remained closed and locked. A keypad adjacent to this door requires a code to unlock the door. Investigators learned that this door is often left propped open, but the access code is also printed by the keypad.”
A spokesman for Bickford Tuesday said the facility had no comment.
Bickford has a one-star overall rating from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services, records show. The rating is based on a nursing home’s “performance” in health inspections, staffing and quality measures.
The facility had 24 health citations over the last three years compared to the national average of 9.6, according to CMS, records show.
The facility was fined $55,362 in relation to violations following an investigation on March 14, 2025 when “the facility failed to report a deterioration in wound status to the physician, ensure wound care was completed in accordance with physicians orders, and ensure an air mattress was provided timely which resulted in a deterioration of a pressure ulcer,” records show.
DPH also fined the facility $7,600 for the same incident.
DPH and CMS also fined the facility following an investigation on Dec. 11, 2024 when “the facility failed to complete monthly maintenance checks to ensure resident’s bed frames were free from sharp/jagged edges in accordance with manufacturer’s recommendations resulting in a laceration to the leg requiring eight sutures,” according to a citation from DPH.
DPH fined the facility $6,200 and CMS $8,900, records show.
Reporting from Hartford Courant reporter Livi Stanford is included in this article.