commentary by Patrick H. Moore
It’s rather a twisted thing, and it’s downright embarrassing, but for some weird reason I feel a certain perverse pleasure when I read about immature sons exploiting their ancient sainted mothers.
I’m painfully aware that I should probably be drawn and quartered for harboring such anti-social feelings, but at least I can honestly say that I never exploited my own sainted father; rather, I was kind to him until the day he drew his final breath.
Perhaps, through some misguided psychological quirk, I actually blame the mothers for allowing themselves to be exploited by Junior. Perhaps they were too smothering; perhaps they tied Junior too closely to the apron strings, perhaps they wanted to be exploited because they harbored conscious or unconscious guilt for psychologically castrating Junior and making sure that he never grew up to self-sufficient manhood.
We can be fairly certain, however, that MOMS, generally speaking, while perhaps experiencing masochistic pleasure in some cases from being exploited by Junior, almost certainly abhor the idea of Junior actually killing them and certainly do not want Junior to neglect them.
Yet, according to law enforcement, severe neglect may be precisely what happened in the case of 91 year old Caryl Vanzo of Plymouth, Minnesota. What makes Ms. Vanzo’s case quite unique is that she may be the first MOM in history to actually take a taxicab over to Wells Fargo and make a withdrawal when she was ALREADY DEAD.
It takes chutzpah; that’s for sure…
David Moye of The Huffington Posts writes:
Seven hours before Caryl Vanzo was reported dead at the age of 91, she went to the bank with her son and withdrew $850.
Now authorities believe Vanzo may have already been dead when she visited the Wells Fargo in Plymouth, Minnesota earlier this month.
Like a good immature but loyal son, David Vanzo called 9-1-1 on Jan. 5 to report his mother’s death. According to CityPages.com, however, investigators are not convinced that Ms. Vanzo’s death was unavoidable and an investigation is underway to determine exactly when Ms. Vanzo died and, most importantly, whether her son “had anything to do with it”. Now this sounds ominous and almost seems to suggest that law enforcement is suggesting David may have killed his mother.
My sense is that although David may have exploited MOM in her later years, and he may well have neglected her, based on what is being reported, there appears to be little if any evidence that David KILLED MOM. There’s a difference between the two actions that law enforcement may be losing track of. It is one thing to exploit MOM by spending her money while failing to attend to her hygiene adequately, but it’s quite a different thing to neglect her to the point where, for all intents and purposes, you kill her.
In any event, let us look at what is being reported and then let every man, woman and child decide for themselves. When the officers came to the house after David reported MOM’s passing, they were confronted by the overwhelming stench of urine and feces in the home. Ms. Vanzo’s body was wrapped up “in a robe, fur coat and boots covered in excrement, according to UPI.com.”
Now this is rather disgusting and strongly indicates that — other than keeping her warm in the cold Minnesota winter — David was doing a rather poor job of caring for MOM, but based on the photographs (of course mug shots can be misleading), it appears that he probably wasn’t doing a very good job caring for himself either. In fact, I suspect both Ms. Vanzo and David were quite demoralized as her hourglass slowly emptied. This, however, in no way suggests that David is responsible for Ms. Vanzo’s death.
The neighbors have gotten into the act, allegedly reporting that that when MOM and David got in a taxi to go to the bank, they found themselves wondering “if Caryl was dead or unconscious.”
She clearly wasn’t doing well. To add fuel to the fire, witnesses at the bank said Caryl’s feet kept dragging under her wheelchair.
In an impressive demonstration of police forthrightness and honesty (which as we know in sometimes in short supply, but obviously not in this case), Captain Jeff Swiatkiewicz of the Plymouth Police Department informed CityPages.com that the taxi driver “believed Caryl Vanzo was alive when she got in the cab, suggesting it’s possible she died on the way to the bank.”
Based on these reports, “David Vanzo has been arrested on suspicion of neglect, but has not yet been charged.”
This is not the first time that David has been investigated over his handling of MOM. In fact, on several occasions, he’s been accused of exploiting her financially, according to MyFoxTwinCities.com. According to bank records, on one occasion, he took out a $118,000 reverse mortgage and cash withdrawals of $47,500 and $25,600. David’s contention, though, is that he and his mother had a joint account.
David is steadfast that he’s done nothing wrong.
“My mother and I had an agreement. I took care of my mom for years, I’m the good guy here, not the bad guy,” he told the station. “My mother, she wouldn’t eat in the end.”
Well, no one eats in the end. It does appear, however, that David could have done a better job of taking care of her. It’s hard to excuse the urine and the feces and Ms. Vanzo’s general state of disrepair at the time of her demise.