By Frost McGahey, Investigative Journalist

(Editor's Note: Names have been changed for protection.)

In March of 2024, Steve shot himself. His story is one of failures of people and institutions.

Steve had dementia and Parkinson's and other health conditions requiring daily medical care. He was a 68-year-old man, living by himself who had lost his long-time companion of 25 years, Susan, to liver cancer five months earlier. As a registered nurse, she had been caring for him. With her death, her daughter Kate and her family took over care because they considered him family.

Kate and husband, Joe Drinkwater, lived 30 minutes away from Steve in the Mimbres Valley. Their son had started living with the grandparents to help provide care when Susan became ill. He continued to stay after her death in to help take care of Steve. He considered Steve his grandpa. But Steve's dementia worsened to the point of agitation and hallucinations, and he had always been a heavy drinker.

Kate had been given Power of Attorney for Steve so she reached out last year in November to local organizations for help. Meals on Wheels replied by providing Steve with one good meal a day.

HMS was contacted and an in-office application was approved for expedited home health care, but they never responded despite repeated follow up calls. In the interim, Kate continued to try to find proper care for Steve. She made sure he kept all appointments in order to have proper documentation for facility placement.

In January, after 30 minutes into a 3-hour neural cognitive assessment, Kate was informed by the doctor conducting the assessment that Steve could not live alone with his current level of cognitive impairment from the dementia.

Fort Bayard was contacted in February in order to bring Steve in for a tour of the facility. Three days later, the facility was toured by Steve, Joe, and Kate. At that time, the admission officer gave a handout that listed all the items that were needed in order to begin admission process. She also stated the entire process was very swift and would take only a couple of weeks.

But that wasn't true. Kate spent a month trying to get the administrator to return her phone calls and get Steve admitted. Finally Kate talked to the director of the facility and explained the situation. The administrator got back to Kate and said the required in-home assessment was scheduled for the following Monday.

During that assessment, the nurse stated that Steve could not be left alone, needed immediate institutionalization, and he would be presenting to the admission committee the next morning, to have Steve admitted by the end of the week, the first of next week at the latest. Ten days goes by with no contact from Ft. Bayard admissions.

In March, the administrator explained to Joe that they had been between doctors and could not process admissions. Kate started the process of getting Steve admitted again, but the Fort Bayard medical center failed to contact the doctors for their information.

In Part Two – the Tragedy Unfolds