Woman whose neglect led to mother’s death gets early release Posted on March 31, 2016 0 BELLEFONTAINE (AP) — A 78-year-old Ohio woman has been released from prison after serving 11 months of an 18-month sentence for causing her 100-year-old mother’s death by severe neglect. The Columbus Dispatch reports a judge granted Mary Strawser early release on Wednesday and she left prison at about 2 p.m. Strawser pleaded guilty last year to reckless homicide and theft from an elderly person in the death of her mother, Blanche Cowen. Prosecutors had said she neglected Cohen for years, leaving her to die on a couch in a dilapidated trailer in Rushsylvania. She was 84 pounds when she died in March 2014. Authorities say Strawser used Cowen’s monthly Social Security checks for herself, rather than for her mother’s care. Defense attorney William Kluge says his client is ready to move on.
