Inset: Brian Seitz (Jefferson County Sheriff”s Office). Background: The RV storage lot in Arvada, Colorado, where Seitz allowed his mother to die from neglect (Google Maps).
A Colorado man is headed to prison after his disabled mother died “covered in filth and maggots” with bed sores, two hip fractures and a “loosely connected wrist.”
Brian Seitz, 38, was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Monday after he pleaded guilty to negligent death of an at-risk person in September. The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office arrested Seitz and his 55-year-old girlfriend, Laura Prats, in May 2024. First responders on April 29, 2024, found his 58-year-old mother, Sheryl Seitz, lying on an air mattress in the garage of an Airbnb in the 6400 block of Kendall Street in Arvada, a Denver suburb.
The victim was “covered in filth and maggots.” She was rushed to a hospital, where she died the next day. Authorities learned the crimes likely occurred about 2 miles away at an RV storage lot in the 5800 block of W. 56 Avenue, where the suspects and victim lived separately.
“Hospital documentation indicated that Sheryl was suffering from bed sores, two hip fractures, a ‘loosely connected wrist,’ ulcers, septic shock and maggots burrowing into her body when she arrived,” deputies wrote.
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Investigators went to the victim’s trailer, where there was no running water or a bed for her to sleep in. The only heat source was a space heater.
The two suspects had been Sheryl Seitz’s sole caregivers for six or seven years. Brian Seitz and his girlfriend received state funding from a home health care company to care for her for more than 80 hours a week.
An autopsy determined the manner of death was homicide caused by neglect from prolonged immobility due to rheumatoid arthritis and neck fractures.
Brian Seitz tried to explain away the neglect in an interview with local Fox affiliate KDVR. He said they had recently moved her from the RV park to the Airbnb to get her cleaned up. He claimed he tried to remove the maggots from her body, but she wouldn’t let him.
“We were we were trying to, but she wouldn’t allow us to take the blankets off of her after a certain amount of time she didn’t want us to touch her,” he told the TV station. “I didn’t tell her she had to do anything because that’s my mom. Â She was of sound mind. I let her make her own choices. I offered to call an ambulance for her every day and I offered to get her help every day.”
Prats pleaded guilty to the same charge as her boyfriend and is slated to be sentenced on Dec. 23.
