Today, Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill announced that a Third District Court judge sentenced Lori Meers to two to 30 years for intentional aggravated abuse of a vulnerable adult and manslaughter, related to the death of her mother, W.P., in Cottonwood Heights.
On March 10, 2025, police were called to Intermountain Medical Center for an elder abuse investigation. It had been reported that W.P.'s twin sister, R.M., had visited her sister that day at the home where W.P. lived with her daughter, the defendant. W.P. was nonverbal and had dementia. When R.M. arrived, she found W.P. covered in feces, which doctors told police were a few days old. W.P. also had bed sores, was hypothermic, and had several other medical concerns, including severe sepsis with septic shock. W.P. died on March 19, 2025. The manner of death was determined to be natural; the immediate cause of death was determined to be septic shock due to acute pancreatitis.
Through the investigation, detectives learned that W.P. had lived with her daughter, who was her primary caretaker, for a long time. R.M. didn't usually stay for long when she visited W.P. because the house was not clean. R.M. wanted to find a permanent care facility, but the defendant was not following through. A few weeks prior, the defendant had told R.M. that she had called the elder abuse hotline on herself because she was tired and not able to take care of W.P. like she wanted to. A week later, R.M. followed up with the defendant, but the defendant told R.M. that the elder abuse people never got back to her. R.M. then waited three weeks to go over to visit W.P. When R.M. arrived on March 10, the defendant wasn't home, but W.P.’s grandson L.M. was there. R.M. couldn't find W.P. initially, but eventually found W.P. on the downstairs floor with a sheet over her buttocks. R.M. put her hand on W.P.'s back, and it was ice cold to the touch. At that point, the defendant walked in and told R.M. that W.P. had not eaten in four days. L.M. admitted that the defendant did not reach out for external help like she had told R.M. R.M. then called 911 and handed the phone to the defendant. R.M. told police that when paramedics arrived, every time they moved W.P., she cried out in pain. R.M. told detectives that when she saw W.P. three and a half weeks before this, she could talk, and at Christmas, W.P. was still moving around and in good spirits.
On September 9, 2025, the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office charged the defendant with one count of second-degree felony manslaughter and one count of second-degree felony aggravated abuse of a vulnerable adult.
On July 7, 2026, jury selection began for the defendant’s trial. The jury came back with a decision of guilty on both counts on Friday, July 10, 2026.
Today, a Third District Court judge sentenced the defendant to one to 15 years for one count of aggravated abuse of a vulnerable adult, a second-degree felony, and one to 15 years for one count of manslaughter, a second-degree felony. The judge sentenced the terms to be served consecutively to each other.
"We appreciate the judge seeing the gravity of the situation created by the defendant in her neglect of her own mother. The judge did not mince words when she handed down the sentence saying the defendant’s treatment of her mother amounted to torture. This was not a case of mistakes by an overwhelmed caretaker, this was outright neglect,” said Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill. “We appreciate the work of our prosecutors Karissa McKinney and Ben Bartholomew as well as our support staff for their work on this case ensuring justice for the victim and her loved ones. We thank our Survivor and Victim Services Social Worker who worked with the victim’s family as the case worked its way through the criminal justice process. We are grateful for Cottonwood Heights Police Department detectives for their thorough investigation that helped lead to this just outcome.”