A 75-year-old Morgantown woman is facing a charge after deputies say she left her incapacitated husband on the toilet for roughly 19 hours, ignoring his pain and groaning before going to bed. He died 11 days later at a hospital. Margaret Louise Rog was arrested and has since posted bail.
According to a criminal complaint filed by the Monongalia County Sheriff's Office, Rog was the primary caregiver for her 76-year-old husband, according to MLive. Her husband was legally blind and living with dementia and Alzheimer's disease, and he could not stand on his own, per the outlet's reporting. Morgantown is the county seat of Monongalia County.
Court documents describe what happened after Rog's husband needed to use the bathroom around 3 p.m. on August 20. Rog told investigators she tried to move him but could not lift him, and rather than calling 911 or seeking outside help, she went to bed while he remained on the toilet in physical distress, the complaint states. She admitted to police that she saw her husband in pain and heard him groaning, and MLive reports she did not give him food or water during the ordeal.
Speech Therapist Discovers Him Unresponsive
Rog's husband stayed on the toilet from roughly 3 p.m. on August 20 until 10 a.m. the following morning, when a visiting speech therapist arrived for a scheduled appointment and found him unresponsive, according to Law & Crime and MLive. He was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he was diagnosed with heart failure, respiratory failure, a pulmonary embolism, sepsis, and wounds to his buttocks along with other injuries, per MLive's account. Hospital staff contacted police, reporting that he appeared to have been neglected or abused.
He remained hospitalized until his death on August 31. Rog has been charged with abuse of an incapacitated adult with a substantial risk of death, and police say the investigation into the circumstances surrounding his neglect and death is ongoing.
Next Court Date Set
Rog was arrested and pleaded not guilty. She was booked into the North Central Regional Jail in Greenwood before posting $75,000 bail, per the same account from Law & Crime. No preliminary-hearing date is stated here.
Under West Virginia Code § 61-2-29a, anyone who neglects an incapacitated adult in a way that causes death is guilty of a felony punishable by a fine of up to $5,000 and 5 to 15 years in a state correctional facility. The statute describes the offense and its penalties.
A Statewide Strain on Family Caregivers
The case lands amid growing concern about the burden placed on West Virginia's home caregivers. West Virginia ranks third in the nation for the share of its population 65 or older, with 20.5% of residents in that age group as of 2025, according to MetroNews. Nearly 40,000 West Virginians age 65 and older have been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease or dementia, and about 65,000 unpaid family caregivers are identified in the 2025 Facts and Figures report from the Alzheimer's Association — unpaid labor valued at $2 billion a year statewide.
West Virginia has an Adult Protective Services program. A legislative performance audit is not detailed here. It is unclear whether Adult Protective Services had any prior contact with Rog's household before her husband's death.
