A man who claimed he was beaten by staff at a state-run center for the mentally retarded died after extreme agitation caused his heart to stop, the medical examiner said Tuesday. Dr. Mary Case, medical examiner for St. Louis County, said the bruises and scrapes George Holmes had on his face and side did not cause his death Aug. 4. Rather, she said, the mildly retarded man became so agitated that his heart began beating unevenly and it stopped. Case acknowledged reports that Holmes had been abused, but said the autopsy could not determine whether he suffered the bruises and scrapes in a beating or a fall. "What happened was his psychiatric disorder caused him to be so highly agitated that his heart began to beat very erratically," Case told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "Eventually, the heart is no longer able to support life, and it causes a rather abrupt death." Holmes, 33, had called his stepmother, Rose Tabron, hours before his death. She said Holmes told her he was being abused by workers at the state-run Bellefontaine Habilitation Center, where he had lived 18 years. The Missouri Department of Mental Health, which oversees the center, began an investigation along with the FBI and local police. After Holmes' death, parents alleged their children had also been beaten at the center, a resident care center in suburban St. Louis. Since then, the state has fired four workers, disciplined an additional four and placed others on paid leave pending investigations into allegations of abuse and neglect. [more
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