Shop

The deaths of severely disabled Illinois residents who lived at home cared for by friends and relatives were not being investigated by the state agency specially created to protect them — the Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Human Services. The reason given for not investigating?The agency's internal documents showed that that OIG considered the dead to be "ineligible for services," even when victims died shortly after being hospitalized on an emergency basis and after the agency had received calls on its hotline alleging that the disabled person had been abused or neglected. The Belleville News-Democrat's wide-ranging investigation initially focused on the deaths of 53 of these home bound disabled adults.