After consulting with family, Rita Kittower agreed to the exhumation of her husband in order to “find out the truth” and protect any other potential victims of abuse. Genaro Molina /
Los Angeles Times
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A woman just coming to terms with bereavement hears that her husband may have been fatally beaten in the facility where he lived.
By Scott Glover, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
December 19, 2007
The day Rita Kittower buried her husband last month, the 83-year-old widow from Tarzana thought she had endured the worst life had to offer.
She had bade a tearful goodbye to her mate of 49 years, who had passed away in an exclusive assisted living facility in Calabasas. "He just stopped breathing," Kittower said she was told by a staff member.
With such a peaceful death, she thought, at least her husband Elmore would be free of the torment he had been feeling since losing much of his memory and independence after a severe stroke a year earlier."I thought it was meant to be," she said.
Then came the anonymous phone call the day after the funeral.
A woman claiming to be an employee of the nursing home told Rita that her 80-year-old husband's death had been anything but peaceful. She said Elmore Kittower had been beaten to death by someone on the staff.
Days later, detectives from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department would pose a question that was almost inconceivable to the elderly widow.
Would it be OK, they asked, if they exhumed her husband's body?
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Ravissant adds: This is a horrifying fact-is-stranger-than- fiction story, allegedly yet another case of criminal action by a care giver. Read the full story in Los Angeles Times, December 19, 2007
Copyright 2007 Los Angeles Times
