- November 15, 2024
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A 34-year-old Bunnell woman is facing an aggravated manslaughter charge in connection with the 2013 death of her elderly uncle, who was disabled and relied on her for care.
The woman, Holly Lyn Norris, was originally charged with elderly neglect. The state upgraded the charges Nov. 23 after deputies determined that she had left the victim, 67-year-old John L. Satanoski, alone for days when a deputy doing a welfare check found him unresponsive.
Deputies arrested Norris after she turned herself in at the Sheriff' Office substation in Palm Coast.
Satanoski came to the attention of the Sheriff's Office when an employee at the adult daycare he attended became worried when he didn't show up for several days, according to a Sheriff's Office report. A deputy who went to the house April 25, 2013, found all of the doors locked, but slipped in through an unlocked window and found Satanoski unresponsive on the bedroom floor.
The deputy called Norris, who had power of attorney over Satanoski, and told her that her uncle had been hospitalized. The deputy was notified May 9, 2013 that Satanoski had died at the hospital May 7.
Norris called the hospital a few times, according to the report, but never visited. The deputy was assigned to check into the case to make sure it wasn't suspicious.
The deputy tried multiple times to contact Norris by phone, and couldn't reach her. So the deputy went to the Norris home on County Road 305 in Bunnell. Norris told the deputy that she lived there with Satanoski and with her 3-year-old.
The deputy contacted an adult daycare worker, who said Satanoski had attended for years, for 8 hours a day, and that Norris dropped him off and picked him up. She said that she'd called Norris out of concern when Satanoski didn't show up for three days. Norris, she said, said that Satanoski was fine and that she hadn't taken him because she'd been in a car crash that had disabled her car. The daycare had a bus for customers, the employee told the detective. But Norris had said she was fine and didn't need it.
As the days went by and Satanoski still didn't arrive, the employee, unable to reach Norris, grew worried. She'd asked Norris to put Satanoski in a living facility for constant care, but Norris had refused, the employee told the deputy.
Norris told the deputy that she'd been caring for her uncle consistently. But a male friend serving jail time spoke to the deputy and said that Norris had spent several days and nights with him and his girlfriend at his Bunker View Lane home. And he only drove her out, he said, after Satanoski was hospitalized.
The man's girlfriend corroborated his story: Norris had stayed for about a week without ever heading home to check on Satanoski, she told the deputy.
Circuit Judge David Walsh signed a warrant for Norris' arrest on a charge of aggravated manslaughter of an elderly disabled adult on Nov. 20.
