The nurse on duty reportedly could not find the resident in her bed, did not call a facility-wide alert for hours, and did not yet know the 84-year-old was lying outside in the winter cold with no way back in.
According to a wrongful death lawsuit and a parallel criminal case in Cuyahoga County, an unlocked exit door at an Ohio nursing home, missed resident checks, and a delayed response to a missing patient converged in the death of Alvera Meuti, 84. Her family says she froze to death on a patio outside Avenue at Warrensville Care and Rehabilitation Center near Cleveland after a door closed and locked behind her. The facility and the nurse on duty, Amber Henderson, now face civil claims and, in Henderson’s case, a felony charge of involuntary manslaughter, as first reported by Law&Crime (source).
An 84-Year-Old Disappears From Her Room
The family lawsuit, filed in Cuyahoga County, states that Meuti was a resident at Avenue at Warrensville on the night of December 23, 2024, when staff discovered she was no longer in her room.
According to the complaint, a nurse identified in court records as Amber Henderson went to check on Meuti at about 9:30 p.m. and found the room empty. The complaint alleges: “At 9:30 p.m. on December 23, 2024, Henderson visited Alvera’s room and Alvera was not there. Yet no report was made and no action was taken to locate Alvera. Additional checks should have been made to check for, locate, or to notify Alvera’s family that she was missing, which did not occur.”
Near Meuti’s room, the family says, was an exit door that had no keypad or alarm and that was left unlocked. The complaint asserts that such a door “should have been present” with security features to prevent a resident from leaving “without notice or an alarm sounding.”
The filing does not describe any immediate facility-wide search after the 9:30 p.m. room check. Instead, it alleges that Meuti remained unaccounted for throughout the night, while the door near her room provided a direct route to an outside patio and staircase.
Unlocked Door, Locked Patio, No Way Back In
By the morning of December 24, 2024, Meuti was found outside the building. The lawsuit states: “On the morning of December 24, 2024, Alvera was found on a patio outside the facility near the area she exited and near a door that locked behind her, with no ability to re-enter.”
The complaint continues: “Alvera died from hypothermia as she froze to death.” That description of cause of death appears in the civil filing and was cited in Law&Crime’s report on the case (source).
The Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office later summarized the morning response in a public press release, as quoted by Law&Crime. According to that description, after staff realized during shift change that Meuti had not been seen for hours, the facility called a “Code Purple” missing resident alert. The Warrensville Heights Police Department responded. Around 8 a.m., other nurses found Meuti outside on the patio lying on her back. She was taken to a local hospital and pronounced dead on arrival.
An investigation by Warrensville Heights police, described by prosecutors and cited in the civil complaint, concluded that the door near Meuti’s room was unlocked from the inside and lacked the security features that administrators said should have been standard. The door, according to prosecutors, locked from the outside, which meant that once Meuti passed through it, she could not get back into the building.
⚠️ WARNING: This post contains descriptions of elderly neglect and death.
Alvera Meuti, 84, died of hypothermia after wandering onto a nursing home patio through an unsecured exit door that locked behind her. The incident occurred at the Avenue at Warrensville Care and… pic.twitter.com/ZkZrYFm3TT
— True Crime Updates (@TrueCrimeUpdat) January 19, 2026
Prosecutors Say Nurse Assumed Resident Left With Family
Henderson now faces a felony count of involuntary manslaughter in connection with Meuti’s death. According to a March 2025 press release from the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office, which Law&Crime obtained and quoted, Henderson allegedly did not treat Meuti as missing when she first saw the empty room.
Prosecutors stated that Henderson “assumed Alvera left the facility with her family and continued her shift.” Only hours later, around 12:36 a.m., did she attempt to call Meuti’s family to ask whether Meuti was with them, according to that press release. The family did not answer, and Henderson resumed her shift.
It was not until about 6:30 a.m., prosecutors said, that Henderson told a supervisor she had not seen Meuti her entire shift, which led to the Code Purple alert and the eventual discovery of Meuti on the patio.
The prosecutor’s office also described findings about Henderson’s preparation and the facility’s security. In that press release, officials said it is required for nurses at the facility to check residents every two hours. They also said that every door “should have a keypad and be locked,” and that there was an unlocked door near Meuti’s room leading to a staircase and the patio where she was found. According to prosecutors, the door locked from the outside, which made it impossible for Meuti to return inside on her own.
Prosecutors further asserted that Henderson was not qualified to work at the nursing home and that she falsified entries indicating she had completed required tasks involving Meuti during the shift. Those assertions have not yet been tested in court. Henderson is presumed innocent unless and until she is proven guilty.
Family Lawsuit Targets Staffing And Security
Separate from the criminal case, Meuti’s relatives have filed a wrongful death and negligence lawsuit against both Henderson and Avenue at Warrensville Care and Rehabilitation Center. The complaint alleges that Henderson failed to provide “proper” and “adequate” supervision and failed to report Meuti as missing in a timely way.
The family also seeks to hold the facility itself responsible. The suit accuses the nursing home of a “failure to ensure that the facility was properly staffed and that the facility was properly secured to protect and meet the needs of its residents.” It alleges that Avenue at Warrensville has a history of “inadequately staffing and/or training its employees” and that these systemic issues set the stage for what happened to Meuti.
In the complaint’s summary, the family argues: “The lack of staff, training, and keeping the facility properly secured resulted in Alvera not being checked on, her absence not being promptly addressed, leaving the facility through an unlocked door, and not being able to re-enter the facility which caused Alvera’s injury and resulted to her freezing to death.”
The lawsuit seeks damages, although the exact amounts requested were not detailed in the Law&Crime report. Civil discovery could eventually bring out more information about staffing levels, prior security incidents, and internal records regarding door alarms and training protocols at the facility.
Defense And Silence
Henderson has pleaded not guilty to the involuntary manslaughter charge. Her attorney, speaking to local Fox affiliate WJW, said, “She did nothing wrong. I will vigorously defend her.” That statement, quoted by Law&Crime, signals that Henderson may challenge both the factual timeline and prosecutors’ characterization of her training and responsibilities.
Law&Crime reported that lawyers and representatives for Avenue at Warrensville Care and Rehabilitation Center could not be reached for comment when contacted. The outlet noted that when WJW reached the facility earlier, representatives said they had no comment.
As of the latest reporting, Henderson has a pretrial hearing scheduled for January 27 in Cuyahoga County. The criminal case remains in its early stages, and the nursing home has not filed a public, detailed response to the family’s civil allegations.
What Remains Unanswered
The public record so far rests largely on three pillars: the family’s civil complaint, the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office press release, and initial reporting from outlets such as Law&Crime that have reviewed both. Those documents line up on key points about the timeline, the unlocked door, and the fact that Meuti died from exposure outside the building.
What is less clear from those records is how Avenue at Warrensville documented its staffing levels and door security before December 2024, whether state or federal inspectors had previously cited the facility over exits or resident supervision, and what specific policies were in place for patients at risk of wandering.
Until the criminal case proceeds further, and until the nursing home responds in detail in civil court, the public picture of how an 84-year-old resident ended up on a locked patio in the cold with an unlocked door at her back and no way inside remains incomplete.
