INDIANAPOLIS — A healthcare center resident has been charged in the death of another resident at an Indianapolis facility earlier this month.
Officers responded to Homestead Healthcare Center around 5:30 a.m. on Feb. 2.
A facility employee said when she went to give Patricia Newnum medication around 5 a.m., Dwayne Freeman was on top of Newnum with a pillow over her face. She was pronounced dead a short time later. A probable cause affidavit said Newnum was a hospice patient and a resident at the facility.
According to the affidavit, Freeman grabbed a liquor bottle from the end of Newnum's bed and was rambling incoherently. Another employee could smell alcohol on Freeman's breath and made him leave the room.
Freeman stayed in a different wing of the facility and initially denied being in Newnum's room. Freeman later told authorities he did go into the room because he heard Newnum asking for help. Freeman said the two later had sex, according to the affidavit.
An autopsy showed Newnum's cause of death was asphyxiation by smothering. It was ruled a homicide.
Freeman faces charges of murder and rape. An initial hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 9, according to online court records.
