Laura Catherine Tisdelle (Macomb County Sheriff’s Office)
A 41-year-old woman in Michigan is facing a possible life sentence for allegedly torturing her boyfriend’s elderly mother while he was on vacation with his children, tying the 80-year-old woman to the bed and “severely” beating her until she was eventually found unresponsive in a pool of her own waste.
Judge Kimberly Wiegand on Wednesday ordered Laura Catherine Tisdelle to be bound over to Macomb County Circuit Court to stand trial on one count each of torture, first-degree abuse of a vulnerable adult, unlawful imprisonment, and third-degree domestic violence, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
Under Michigan state law, a person convicted of torture faces a maximum sentence of life in a state correctional facility. On the remaining charges, Tisdelle faces an additional 35 years behind bars.
According to a press release from the Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office, Tisdelle’s boyfriend on June 21, 2023, returned home from a five-day trip with his kids and discovered his mother “with her hands tied together, restrained to the bed, severely beaten and laying in her own urine and feces.”
The Macomb Daily reported that Tisdelle used yellow twine to bind the elderly woman’s hands to her bed.
“The defendant’s boyfriend left his mother in her care and when he came home from his trip, the defendant was intoxicated and he found his mother non-responsive,” Wiegand said, per The Macomb Daily.
The victim was rushed to a hospital where she was admitted and placed into the intensive care unit in critical condition, prosecutors said. During the boyfriend’s trip, authorities claim that Tisdelle was the only person charged with caring for his mother.
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“The torture and abuse allegedly inflicted upon a defenseless, elderly woman is a grim testament to the darkest corners of our society,” Macomb County Prosecutor Peter J. Lucido said in a statement following Tisdelle’s arrest. “It is my solemn duty to prosecute these heinous acts. We will ensure that the victim’s voice is heard, her pain acknowledged, and her perpetrator held accountable.”
Tisdelle was arraigned in June and held on $200,000 bond. She has been in detention since her initial arrest. Wiegand also ordered her to undergo substance abuse and mental health evaluations.
Tisdelle was scheduled to appear in Macomb County District Court in front of Wiegand again on Wednesday for a preliminary examination in the case, but she waived the hearing resulting in her case being bound over to the circuit court for trial.
In June, Lucido spoke to Detroit Fox affiliate WJBK about the circumstances of Tisdelle’s alleged actions.
“It is something so shocking to anyone who has an aged loved one. How could someone aged and vulnerable be (subjected) to having this happen to them,” he said to the station, adding, “I really feel for this woman (and) her son. I am appalled.”
The Macomb Daily reported that Tisdelle in 2015 and 2019 was charged with domestic violence, but those charges were eventually dismissed.
Tisdelle is scheduled to make her first appearance in circuit court on the afternoon of Jan. 8, records show.
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