Anonymous wrote:*The bigger issue is that she left a 95 year old man with advanced Alzheimer’s alone at home often while she ran errands, for hours at a time, with no one there to watch over him.*

This^.

Absolutely negligent and makes me think Mrs. Awakara was focused on keeping his diagnosis a secret from everyone.

She probably kept it a secret for a lot of reasons. She didn’t the intrusion into their lives, and probably didn’t want to fight his kids over things.

Can you imagine if info had gotten out about Gene having Alzheimer’s? Think of Bruce Willis. I just don’t think she wanted to deal with the publicity of it all, so she kept it secret.

Anonymous wrote:Here is a link from the CDC. It has a map of known reported cases throughout US: cases are all over the map. This is why you can’t let a mouse problem get out of control.

https://www.cdc.gov/hantavirus/data-research/cases/index.html

Wow, that is a high death rate!

Here is a link from the CDC. It has a map of known reported cases throughout US: cases are all over the map. This is why you can’t let a mouse problem get out of control.

https://www.cdc.gov/hantavirus/data-research/cases/index.html

*The bigger issue is that she left a 95 year old man with advanced Alzheimer’s alone at home often while she ran errands, for hours at a time, with no one there to watch over him.*

This^.

Absolutely negligent and makes me think Mrs. Awakara was focused on keeping his diagnosis a secret from everyone.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I find it hilarious that one poster is so fixated on the fact that they must have had mice in the house. Imagine posting dozens of times about this fact.

She is truly bizarre.

She should be one of those door-to-door pest control salespeople.

+1 Bizarre fixation. Authorities stated no evidence of infestation in the main house but suspected on the property.

why are you two talking to each other about another DCUM poster, throwing around a lot of random rude adjectives? What's the point? Do you think your ganging up makes your point stronger? Two people on the anonymous internet say "we agree!"--please!

Because they want to create a different narrative. Anyone that knows about move or have had mice know that they were at the house as well, especially given the layout of the house, the woods out back, and the fact that they kept the back door opened and found evidence of mice at other connected buildings on the property.

The real issue is this: if mice were located at the main building, carrying this deadly virus, it has implications. So these two are trying their best to say “no!” Only found in an outhouse or shed on the property, or some pile of logs somewhere, or when she took a walk in the woods. Mice don’t work/live that way. Sorry.

Mice don’t stay in one area. They travel to food and warmth and mayhem. They poop nonstop. All it took was for a couple of mice to get into the home to cause an infestation. Really, it doesn’t take much for poop to be all over the place, even in a cleaner home. This is a common thing.

But they stay if they are comfortable (food source, heat source, privacy source, etc).

The bigger issue to me isn’t so much that there were diseased mice running around the property, though that has serious implications. The bigger issue is that she left a 95 year old man with advanced Alzheimer’s alone at home often while she ran errands, for hours at a time, with no one there to watch over him.

One way or another this was just a sad ending. I’ve seen Alzheimer’s up close. It’s too much to take on by yourself and to keep a 12 acre property well maintained and to keep yourself up.

Gene was a great actor. But this could have happened to anyone. They needed more help. And she should have sought more help for the pest problem. With Hantavirus present in that area, it’s was known hazard. Perhaps out of pride, or the incredible need for privacy, or ignorance, things played out like they did.

Anonymous wrote:In other words, a couple of people on this thread are absolute jerks. It’s not appropriate to be so rude to people asking questions.

They're not asking questions, rather stating (erroneous) opinions as if they were objective facts.

In other words, a couple of people on this thread are absolute jerks. It’s not appropriate to be so rude to people asking questions.

A big problem on this thread is someone asking a question and multiple people responding. And the original question giver is like “OK got it.” But then the comment lives on forever so then people are like “oh my gosh how do you not already get it? Why are you still asking?”

I’m a very Infrequent poster here. But one of mine keeps coming back and people saying “why are you still asking?” I’m not. (See page 29)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gene had 3 children although most on this thread seem to only mention his daughters. His son is 65, his youngest daughter is 59 and the other daughter is in between. He travelled a lot for work when the kids were growing up and separated from his first wife in the late 70s/early 80s, although they didn't offically divorce until 1986. I am not sure how much he was around the kids. He was living with Betsy by 1984 and with her until now so 40 years.

His kids would have been young adults and the same age as Betsy when she started dating Gene so likely they didn't have a really close relationship with her. His life was with Betsy for a very long time.

I think this part isn't being focused on enough. I know that as a daughter, I would be completely skeeved out if my father married a woman close in age to me. I don't think I would be able to get over it, and 40 years later, that's a long time for a semi-estrangement to be pretty entrenched.

As a daughter I agree. His new wife can take care of him, bye!

Anonymous wrote:Dang I could see something like this happening to my dad, and NO, I’m not a terrible daughter. His wife is 20 years younger than him and does all his care - at her insistence. They live 1,000 miles away from me. He’s in physical decline (Parkinsons). I call him every few days. If he didn’t pick up, it would still take me a few days to get worried, because he has a wife/caregiver. If I didn’t hear from him in, say, 3 days, then I’d reach out to her. Probably give her 24 hours to respond and if I didn’t hear back then, I’d ask for a welfare check. So easily could be a week.

I don’t feel like a terrible daughter. I feel like I’m doing the best I can with a declining dad whose wife sort of isolates him, and doesn’t encourage any relationship between him and me.

Not defending his daughters, but also not seeing them as the villains.

I agree. When your absentee dad marries someone your age and likely is going to leave all money to her, why would you care about him?
His kids are probably happy now that they don’t have to deal with the wifey anymore and can just inherit things

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I find it hilarious that one poster is so fixated on the fact that they must have had mice in the house. Imagine posting dozens of times about this fact.

She is truly bizarre.

She should be one of those door-to-door pest control salespeople.

+1 Bizarre fixation. Authorities stated no evidence of infestation in the main house but suspected on the property.

why are you two talking to each other about another DCUM poster, throwing around a lot of random rude adjectives? What's the point? Do you think your ganging up makes your point stronger? Two people on the anonymous internet say "we agree!"--please!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where was she that she was inhaling rodent union and droppings to contract hantavirus?

It happens all the time in the South West. Totally clean house, and you can't detect there are rodents in your walls and ceiling. They poop and pee and you breathe in Hanta.

So why didn't Gene die of it too?

Nope, the house could not have been totally clean. I had a mouse problem. If the mice were only in the walls and attic, you won’t see droppings. They had mice in the house and the infestation had grown worse. I know this because it takes a lot to get rid of them. With a sprawling property, dogs, etc, they had an unchecked mouse issue and that’s how she died.

If there had been a dramatic infestation it would have been noted in the search warrant. It’s much more likely that she got it in an outbuilding, a woodpile, or even just being outside. Yosemite campers contracted it. It’s also possible that there was a mouse or two inside and that’s how she contracted it, but people acting like the house was covered in droppings are delusional. The fact that exterminators were scheduled also doesn’t mean they had mice. There are lots of creepy crawlies in that arid climate, and it’s common to have regularly scheduled exterminators.

How do campers randomly get this disease? This freaks me out!

Interesting fact:
A single mouse will leave behind 50 to 75 droppings each day—almost always outside its nest.


Another fact:
Mice are good at getting into the smallest spaces. Because they only need 1/4 inch to fit through a gap, cracks in the home exterior—which may not be noticeable—are opportunities for mice to get in. They can enter through a foundation or crawl to an attic, but once they’re inside the home, mice gravitate toward places with privacy and access to a food source. Very often, their food will come from the kitchen.

Source: https://www.bobvila.com/articles/what-does-mouse-poop-look-like/

Not only did some mice get in the house, she was probably vacuuming or sweeping up the poop, to keep the place clean.

The virus got airborne (because you are not suppose to do either since the poop is toxic). And she kept getting sicker. Probably cleared/vacuumed up poop around the house before running her errands.

Mice were in the compound. At least two or three authorities found evidence of mice in and around the compound. Pest control was there to spray. These are all facts.

Outside of the house was thick woods! I doubt if she was running out to the woods, rolling around on the ground for long periods of time, and then going about her day.

Sorry. Mouse story. They multiply quickly (every three weeks), and poop is everywhere!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I find it hilarious that one poster is so fixated on the fact that they must have had mice in the house. Imagine posting dozens of times about this fact.

She is truly bizarre.

She should be one of those door-to-door pest control salespeople.

+1 Bizarre fixation. Authorities stated no evidence of infestation in the main house but suspected on the property.