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WINDSOR LOCKS - Two employees at a now-closed nursing home where a 93-year-old resident died from hypothermia after wandering out into the cold earlier this year have been arrested, police said.
The employees were taken into custody Monday in connection with the Feb. 8 death of Margaret Janice "Peggy" Healey, according to a news release from South Windsor police Lt. Paul Cherniack.
Cherniack did not identify the individuals, but said the department will hold a press conference at police headquarters on Spring Street Tuesday morning regarding "significant movement" in the case.
Police have said that Healey, a Waterbury native and former teacher who had severe dementia, was captured on surveillance cameras leaving the Bickford Health Care Center around 1:50 a.m. and wandering into freezing temperatures.
Staffers searching for the missing patient discovered her lying in a snowbank just south of the Main Street center about three hours and 17 minutes later, and waited another hour to call 911, police have said.
Police have said that Healey was wearing a device designed to alert staff if she were to go beyond a perimeter, but that it was only set to activate at the doors in the front of the 48-bed nursing home.
According to the state Office of Chief Medical Examiner, Healey died of hypothermia due to environmental exposure, with other significant conditions of hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. The death was also deemed an accident.
The arrests come just five days after the state Board of Examiners for Nursing suspended the license of Papy Bibo, the nursing supervisor who was in charge when Healey left the facility. The board determined Bibo failed to notify other staff or emergency responders after Healey went missing.
In an April interview with CT Insider, Bibo said he tried to save Healey and is not responsible for mistakes that allowed her to go missing for more than three hours.
"She had signs of life," Bibo said when asked in a phone interview why he did not call 911 immediately after Healey was found outside on a bitterly cold morning.
Bickford closed and all of its patients were moved to other nursing homes after the state Department of Health issued a 14-count "statement of charges" citing numerous violations of state health and safety regulations at the facility.
Those counts included a failure to notify the police department within 15 minutes of a resident being discovered missing and failure to adequately supervise a resident with dementia who had been identified as a "wander risk."
Healey's death was not the first time regulators uncovered violations at the facility. State and federal officials previously cited Bickford for failing to properly treat a patient's wound, not taking steps to prevent another's injury and exposing residents to scalding hot water, records show.
Family members have said Healey was a former nun who left the order after about 16 years and went on to a long career teaching French at Sacred Heart High School and Notre Dame Academy in Waterbury.
Described as kind-hearted and gracious, relatives said her passions included her close-knit family, her Siamese cats and Yorkshire Terrier and Maltese dogs.
"She will be remembered for her devotion to teaching, her love of language, animals, and family, and for the quiet, steady presence she brought to the lives of those who knew her," her obituary said.
This story includes previous Hearst Connecticut Media Group reporting.
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