Inset: Kim Zaheer (Flagler County Sheriff’s Office). Background: The home where Zaheer allegedly neglected her mother to death in 2018 (Google Maps).
A Florida woman, aged 68, is facing prison time for the tragic death of her elderly mother. The victim, an 88-year-old woman, suffered severe neglect and malnutrition, with medical professionals drawing harrowing comparisons to the victims of World War II concentration camps.
In a court ruling on Thursday, Judge Dawn D. Nichols of the Seventh Judicial Circuit sentenced Kim Zaheer to six years in a state correctional facility. This sentence follows the 2018 death of her mother, Frances Hildegard King. However, taking into account the 4 1/2 years Zaheer has already served, she faces just over a year more behind bars. Upon her release, Zaheer will be under probation for an additional decade.
The state attorney’s office decided to waive the typical state sentencing guidelines due to the unique aspects of the case and Zaheer’s own health issues. These guidelines would have otherwise mandated a minimum prison term exceeding 11 years.
The sentence follows Zaheer’s no contest plea to a charge of aggravated manslaughter, which she entered in September.
The grim events unfolded on December 5, 2018, when deputies from the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office responded to a call about an unresponsive elderly woman, later confirmed to be King. First responders arriving at the scene encountered a distressing environment. King was found cold, severely undernourished, and displaying signs of rigor mortis. The victim and her clothing were soiled, with rat droppings present on and around her body. She was discovered deceased in a bed, dressed in makeshift diapers made from garbage bags, according to the charging affidavit.
The residence itself was in a deplorable state, with police reports describing it as being incredibly unclean and permeated by an unbearable stench.
The medical examiner’s notes stated that King’s “eyes appeared to have dehydrated back [into] her head” and the funeral home’s body removal personnel told investigators that she had “never observed someone in the same or similar condition” to King’s. The body removal specialist also stated that King’s condition “resembled the condition of prisoners in a concentration camp,” and the medical examiner agreed.
The medical examiner determined that King’s cause of death was “severe emaciation” and emphysematous cystitis, a rare infection of the bladder wall most commonly caused by E. coli.
During the sentencing hearing, Nichols repeatedly referred to a photo of King taken immediately after her death, when she weighed a mere 53 pounds, Flagler Live reported. The judge called the photo “devastating” and “truly horrific,” adding that the picture of King “says it all.”
