The Pennsylvania attorney general’s office plans to test DNA from a hair found on a wipe that was pulled from the throat of a woman who lived at a care home for people with developmental difficulties.
The testing is part of a renewed criminal investigation into Cheryl Yewdall’s choking death in Philadelphia nearly three years ago, according to court documents filed Thursday.
A $15 million wrongful death lawsuit filed by Yewdall’s mother casts suspicion on an unidentified staff member at the Merakey Woodhaven facility in Philadelphia. Attorneys for the family recently asked a judge to order DNA testing on a strand of hair that was stuck to the corner of the wipe — a potentially important piece of evidence missed by city homicide investigators. A pathologist for the family detected the hair by magnifying police evidence photos of the wipe.
They’re going backwards in terms of requirements for caregivers. It’s cheaper to defund large programs and hire people as individual direct supports regardless of their resume as long as they have a clean BCI. Those large programs slowly disappearing means the individual caregivers end up with less resources avalible to them too. There are plenty of brilliant Direct Support Professionals and other types of caregivers, just also a lot of not so great one’s as well.