Cottonwood Heights woman found guilty of manslaughter, abuse after elderly mother’s death

SALT LAKE CITY — A woman was found guilty of causing her elderly mother’s death on Friday after prosecutors said she did not properly care for her 77-year-old mother.

After deliberating for about three and a half hours in the evening, a jury found Lori Meers of Cottonwood Heights guilty of manslaughter and intentional aggravated abuse of a vulnerable adult, second-degree felonies.

On March 10, 2025, police responded to Intermountain Medical Center, where Meers’ mother was admitted. The woman had lived with her daughter, Meers, 54, who cared for her while she had dementia. The mother’s twin sister had visited their home earlier that day and found her lying on the floor with a sheet over her, “covered in feces” with bedsores, severe sepsis and other medical conditions, charging documents said.

The woman, referred to by her initials W.P. in court documents, died on March 29, and prosecutors said the death was determined to be natural from “septic shock due to acute pancreatitis.”

The twin sister reported to officers that she did not usually stay long when she visited because the house was not clean, and she wanted to find a permanent care facility for her sister, but Meers was not following through when she said she would help.

W.P.’s sister reported that Meers had told her she had called the elder abuse hotline on herself “because she was tired and not able to take care of W.P. like she wanted to,” according to prosecutors’ statement on Monday, but Meers claimed the people at the hotline did not get back to her.

It was three weeks after that conversation when W.P.’s sister came to find her needing significant help. Meers told the sister her mom had not eaten in four days. The sister then called 911, handing the phone to Meers.

W.P.’s sister reported that three weeks earlier, W.P. could talk and that at Christmas a few months earlier, she was moving around and “in good spirits.”

Meers was not charged until Sept. 9, 2025. She is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 8.

Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill thanked their geriatric and elder abuse expert, Dr. Paul Eleazer, and prosecutors, police and victim services social workers for their help with the case. He told KSL that the doctor testified that it was the neglect and abuse through the neglect, not the illnesses, that ultimately caused her death.

“With proper care and support, this would not have resulted in the unnecessary early death of this elderly person,” he said.

Eleazer was one of prosecutors’ final witnesses, and Gill said jurors also heard from the woman’s twin sister and grandson, who is Meers’ son.

He said prosecutors wish that Meers had reached out for help as she said she would. According to Gill, the population is aging and has more elderly people than ever, and laws support that they deserve dignity and respect in their old age, and should not be neglected.

“I understand that taking care of somebody who is elderly can be sometimes overwhelming and so we have a lot of community resources,” he said.

Utah is a mandatory reporting state, so Gill said if anyone sees or suspects elder abuse they have a duty to report it.

Contributing: Nathan Riser, KSL