NORTON, W.Va (WDTV) – A woman was arrested Tuesday after deputies found an elderly woman and two dogs being neglected at a home near Norton in Randolph County.
Canda Arbogast, 28, of Belington, was arrested after a neighbor called 911 for a medical assist, according to the Randolph County Sheriff’s Office.
When deputies arrived at Arbogast’s home on River Mist Drive to assist EMS, they found an elderly woman sitting on the edge of the bed with oxygen lines nearby in a large amount of smoke. Deputies said the smoke was coming from the fireplace, not exiting the chimney, and was filling the home causing breathing difficulties for law enforcement and EMS and creating a risk of smoke inhalation for those in the home.
The woman, who is unable to walk, was sitting in feces, court documents say, and could not tend to the fireplace or chimney or exit the home to get fresh air.
Deputies also found two dogs in a small fenced-in area outside the home that was covered with feces. One of the dogs was chained and wrapped around a pole in the dog house, and two feeding containers were in the area — one container that was full of mud and another that had minimal water that deputies believed was collected from rain, court documents say.
While on scene, deputies also found two refrigerators and one deep freezer in the yard abandoned with other trash on the property, and the doors were still connected, which is illegal in the state of West Virginia. The purpose of the law is to prevent someone, particularly children, from getting trapped inside one of the abandoned appliances.
Arbogast is charged with neglect of an incapacitated adult by a caregiver, animal neglect and three counts of doors to be removed from abandoned refrigerators and freezers.
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