According to the allegations of the authorities in Redding, California, severe neglect was the reason 90-old Dorothy Havens died on May 15, 2015. Havens had been under the “care” of her daughter Kathryn Jean Havens,  56, and granddaughter Amanda Havens, 33. Dorothy was discovered by police officers the previous night after a report of possible elder abuse, and both her daughter and granddaughter were placed under arrest.

Unfortunately for Dorothy Havens, help came too late. She died at the hospital the morning after her rescue, unable to recover from the abuse she had endured for so long. Investigators say that Dorothy had been in her bed since November 2014 and that she was suffering from bedsores, was covered with feces, and had wounds with fly larvae coming out of them. Her daughter and granddaughter, who were living off Dorothy Havens’s Social Security checks, were ultimately charged with murder.

While most of us would have difficulty even contemplating Dorothy’s suffering, sadly, her case is far from unusual. Elder abuse and neglect are becoming increasingly more common. There are various motives for wrongdoing, but the results are always the same: irreparable physical and emotional trauma or loss of life.

One comment about Dorothy Havens, offered by her neighbors, stays with us in particular: They “thought she had passed a couple years ago.” Elderly victims are often left for dead by their abusers, and no one notices for years. Dorothy Havens could easily be one of our own loved ones. The simple truth is that elder abuse requires a community solution: neighbors looking out for each other and reporting potential occurrences of this grave crime. We can—and must—do better to protect our seniors.

Not Even The Superrich Are Safe

You might think that being rich and famous would protect you from elder financial abuse, but that turns out not to be true. Consider, for example, the extreme case of Sumner Redstone.

At age 94, billionaire media mogul Sumner Redstone is spending his sunset years engaged in rather unpleasant business: estate litigation. Redstone, the founder of the Viacom and CBS entertainment empires, made headlines in October 2016 due to a spate of lawsuits brought by two former girl- friends who challenged his will and mental capacity, with sums in the millions at stake. He filed a $150 million lawsuit against the women, alleging elder abuse, fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

The first public sign that all was not well in the House of Redstone came in October of 2015, when the kingpin behind National Amusements disinherited lady friend Sydney Holland and confidante Manuela Herzer from his estate. He eliminated Herzer as the holder of his advance health-care directive and withdrew the $70 million in assets he had set aside for her upon his death. He also kicked the pair out of his house and arranged for daughter Shari Redstone to make her way back into his life as the new heir apparent to a sprawling multibillion-dollar corporate enterprise. Not one to be pushed aside so easily, Herzer pursued claims of undue influence (based on Redstone’s diminished capacity) in Los Angeles County Superior Court, only to have the suit dismissed in May of 2016.

Redstone, his daughter, and their legal team decided to answer Herzer in kind, initiating another round of litigation that will likely leave everyone more miserable aside from the litigators themselves. When Herzer and Holland were ensconced in Redstone’s life, the new lawsuit alleges, they convinced him to cash in on Viacom and CBS stock options and treat each of them to a sweet $45 million in cash. This generous gesture, however, left Redstone holding the bag on massive tax obligations incurred through gifting. In addition, Herzer and Holland splurged on shopping sprees from the boutiques of Beverly Hills to the salons of Paris and secured themselves choice real estate.

Based on the accounts of a nurse working inside his residence, Redstone’s complaint also alleged that: