IRONWOOD, Mich. -- An Upper Peninsula woman is accused of literally starving her 22-year-old mentally retarded daughter to death.
Urslyne Day, 58, of Ironwood, was arraigned on a charge of involuntary manslaughter Thursday in the Jan. 9 death of Carrie Day.
According to the complaint in Gogebic County Circuit Court, Day used 'food deprivation' as punishment and forced her adopted daughter to watch other members of the household eat.
Attorney General Frank Kelley said it is the first time in Michigan that a parent has been prosecuted for failing to care for an adult child.
Authorities said Carrie Day weighed only 65 pounds at death and had received no medical care during her final year of life. Long-term chronic starvation made her vulnerable to pneumonia, the official cause of death, they said.
The state Department of Social Services assigned Carrie to the Day home in 1983, and Urslyne Day adopted her two years later. Three foster children were living in the Day home at the time of Carrie's death. They have since been placed elsewhere.
