A family is claiming their grandfather, who had been missing for several days, was found dead inside a closet at a nursing facility in North Miami.
Elin Etienne, 71, had been reported missing and last seen Aug. 22. Family said Etienne had been receiving care at North Dade Nursing and Rehabilitation Center on Northeast 135th Street.
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Over a week later, Etienne's family said someone anonymously called them about their grandfather and that nobody at the facility was responding to their requests for answers.
"They said they found him in a closet and he was already decomposing, and they refused to let us see the body," said granddaughter Ruth Keisha Etienne. "And we tried to speak to the nursing home people, but they refused to speak to us. They don’t want to talk to us. I wonder why?"
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Last month, the 71-year-old was brought in for rehab after suffering a brain aneurysm.
"We just got the call saying he went missing, and we are like, OK? We went there and talked to them, just trying to get to the bottom of it," the granddaughter said. "They told us he signed an AMA, which means he refused medical help, and we were asking for the documents and to see his signature, and they refused to let us see that."
North Miami Police confirmed they were conducting a death investigation after a body was found inside the North Dade Nursing and Rehabilitation Center on Monday morning, but they could not confirm the identity of the person or the cause of death.
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Cellphone video showed the moments a body was wheeled away from the facility. People are heard crying in the background.
"Unfortunately, I never got a chance to see him, and I didn’t know that time I saw him would be the last time that I would see my grandfather," Ruth Keisha Etienne said.
NBC6 has reached out to the facility but has not received a response.
