Exclusive | Tri-Cities mom was dead for weeks at home. Should her daughter be charged?

Four months after a Richland woman was found living with her mom’s body, prosecutors are reviewing whether the daughter should be held criminally responsible for her death.

Claudia Kinney, 67, had been dead for at least several weeks when police finally got inside the house Feb. 4.

Richland officers and a state welfare investigator spent several days trying to check on Kinney’s well-being, but daughter Angela Greiner refused to let them inside, according to court documents.

Greiner, 45, yelled at authorities to get off her property and left threatening notes around the Mahan Avenue duplex.

The discovery was made after police and Benton County sheriff’s deputies got an injunction demanding immediate access to the older woman.

Death investigation

On April 23, Richland police referred the case to the Benton County Prosecutor’s Office for possible charges.

This week Deputy Prosecutor Brian Hultgrenn told the Tri-City Herald the investigation is mostly wrapped up, and he has several meetings scheduled to discuss the complicated case.

“There are a few more things we are gathering before making a final decision,” he said.

Greiner was taken by the police department’s Mobile Outreach Team when authorities came to the house and served the court order four months ago.

Hultgrenn could not confirm that she remains hospitalized for mental health treatment.

Police have not released any information on the death investigation since that day.

An autopsy determined that Kinney died from pulmonary emphysema.

The “chronic tobacco use” could be attributed to smoking, Benton County Coroner Bill Leach told the Herald.

Emphysema typically causes some obstruction in the airways and eventually the lungs don’t function properly, so the person “can’t breathe anymore and slowly passes away from that,” he said.

Leach speculated that Kinney could have died in October or November, but cautioned that he did not know for sure because there are too many variables to consider. A key factor was what the temperature was inside the house for all those months.

Neighbor concerns

Authorities became concerned about Kinney, and whether she had been neglected and abused, after the duplex neighbor called 911 to report a large hole had been cut into their shared wall.

An odor also was coming from the hole, according to court documents.

An out-of-state relative last spoke to Kinney in August and said she’d been unreachable since then, and a neighbor reported that Kinney had not been seen outside the house in a year, documents said.

Greiner — one of Kinney’s two daughters — became a caretaker for her mother at some point in recent years. The two women lived together on one side of the Mahan Avenue duplex.

Relatives told police earlier in the investigation that Kinney had health issues and had started losing her teeth several years ago, and suspected Greiner of interfering with her treatment by changing the older woman’s medications, court documents said.

Police also learned that Kinney had some tests done at a hospital in June. When staff sent a letter for a follow-up appointment that same month, they received a written response from someone claiming to be Kinney instructing the hospital to stop sending notices, documents said.

Richland Officer Jacob Hubby went to the house in late January and tried to speak to Greiner through the hole from the neighbor’s side.

Greiner “behaved like she had paranoid schizophrenia and her behavior was unstable,” according to a petition that was filed with the injunction. Greiner “was not willing to give information about Claudia Kinney.”

The case was referred to the Washington state Department of Social and Health Services and an Adult Protective Services investigator because Kinney was considered to be a vulnerable adult under state law. That was based on reports she may have been “neglected and mentally abused by her daughter.”

Officers consulted with a mental health professional, who said that Greiner’s behavior was unstable enough that they could have worked toward an involuntary commitment if she had stepped outside. They could not enter the house without a warrant.

Police returned to the house Jan. 28 and “banged on the windows.” No one answered and signs were posted saying, “I swear I will kill you. Stay away from my house.”

Relatives had tried calling the home and either got a busy signal or someone answered and then hung up.

The state investigator and police went to the home Jan. 29, where for a third consecutive day they tried to offer help and get answers from Greiner through the hole.

New notes were taped to the front door.

“I will literally tear you limb from limb if you try to cross in to here!! Don’t try to bang on the windows + doors either! I have nine abandoned kitties you’ve upset very much!!” the notes said.

One investigator removed the cut out piece of drywall and insulation from the hole in the wall and tried yelling for Kinney to ask if she needed help, but got no response.

The investigator then asked Greiner if she was sick, scared or needed to talk about something, but she continued to curse at him and threaten his arrest for breaking and entering.

“I have nothing to say to you. I don’t want to talk to you,” Greiner reportedly said.

Authorities returned Feb. 2 — this time joined by the family’s out-of-state relatives — but their attempts at getting inside the house or talking reasonably with Greiner again were unsuccessful.

Greiner only responded that they were not welcome on her property.

Two days later they were able to get the warrant to enter.

This story was originally published May 25, 2021 at 5:00 AM.