EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — Three individuals from Rio Rancho, New Mexico were arrested on Thursday, May 18 and are being accused of abuse and neglect of a 38-year-old woman who had developmental disabilities, according to the New Mexico Office of the Attorney General.

On Feb. 27, 2023, Angelica Chacon, Patricia Hurtado and Luz Scott attempted to take the victim to Mexico to receive medical treatment. The woman was described to be severely dehydrated, drugged and had “numerous open wounds, including chronic bedsores with exposed bone, bruises and lacerations on various parts of her body, and ligature marks consistent with prolonged restraint,” according to the Attorney General’s Office.

The victim was then found by CBP agents in the rear seat of a white passenger van and was unable to speak. She was transported to UMC in El Paso where she later died on April 7, 2023.

“When they (CBP agents) tried to talk to Mary, she was unresponsive she was nonverbal the only thing she could manage to do in the presence of these officers was cried,” said New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez after a press conference on Thursday.

The Attorney General’s Office says UMC described the victim’s injuries as chronic wounds and adds the arrest warrant indicated that the victim was left in a bathtub in her own feces for days at a time which resulted in infected pressure sores and septic shock.

“Her perpetrators tried to smuggle her out of the state and they tried to smuggle her out of the state because they knew if they took her to the local hospital they would be reported and they would lose their contract and they would lose their money. That’s how she was caught and that’s how these people were identified. My concern is what if that hadn’t happened, how long would Mary had been in that home suffering,” said Torrez.

Angelita Chacon and Patricia Hurtado were contracted with At Home Advocacy (AHA), a company that provides home health care to people with development disabilities, and were reportedly receiving around $5,000 a month, under the Developmental Disabilities Waiver Program, a program that the victim was enrolled in.

“The DD Waiver Program pays providers like AHA to manage in-home care for individuals with disabilities…,” according to the Attorney General’s Office.

The Attorney General’s Office says the last at home visit provided by AHA was on January 25, 2023, which was a month before the victim was discovered at the port of entry in El Paso.

“A preliminary review of the available business records also indicates that AHA received nearly $250,000 to coordinate care and support for [the victim] in the three years before her death,” according to the Attorney General’s Office.

Chacon is being charged with abuse of a resident resulting in death, alternatively neglect of a resident resulting in death, false imprisonment, conspiracy to commit false imprisonment, failure to report, and faces up to 19 years in prison.

Hurtado is being charged with neglect of a resident resulting in death, abuse of a resident resulting in physical harm or great psychological harm, false imprisonment, conspiracy to commit false imprisonment, failure to report, and faces up to 20.5 years in prison.

Scott allegedly assisted and provided the vehicle that transported the victim and is being charged with false imprisonment, conspiracy to commit false imprisonment, and faces up to three years in prison.