FRUITLAND, Md.- Maryland State Police have arrested a caregiver in connection to the death of a woman she was caring for.
Police said 44-year-old Becky Ann Long has been arrested and charged with second-degree murder, assault, manslaughter, reckless endangerment and abuse of a vulnerable adult in connection to the death of 56-year-old Mary Bonniwell.
Police said Long and Bonniwell were living together in Fruitland, and that Long had been Bonniwell's caretaker for more than a year.
Police said officers arrived at the home on July 16 for a report of an unattended death and determined that the death was suspicious. Police say the autopsy revealed the death was a homicide.
According to court documents when police arrived at the home on Morris Street they found Bonniwell slumped over a portable toilet dead. The documents said that Long admitted to having a fight the night prior to Bonniwell’s death over Bonniwell “telling lies.”
An autopsy revealed broken bones, fresh bruising, and hemorrhaging inside Bonniwell’s mouth. Police said Long said the injuries happened the night of the incident when Bonniwell fell off the toilet. In the court documents Long claimed she tried to drag and lift Bonniwell up and then grabbed her neck. She said Bonniwell became dead weight, and the situation lasted for three minutes before Long went to bed for the night.
The court documents revealed that Bonniwell’s injuries were not consistent with a fall, but with asphyxiation.
Long’s son Eric Long said Bonniwell was suffering from breast cancer and had stopped eating.
He said recently she had been falling a lot.
“Mary Ellen had a lot of bruises on her body, and that was from her falling with her walker,” said Eric Long.
Eric believed since Bonniwell’s diagnosis she gave up. He said his mother took good care of Bonniwell.
“My mom wouldn’t hurt her. She loved her. She helped my mom out with her car, and everything else, and bills in the house. We helped her. She helped us. It was family,” said Eric Long.
Eric Long said Bonniwell had been sleeping on the floor on a makeshift bed in their home at the time of her death.
