07 October 2020, Saxony, Dresden: View of a bed in a guest room in the Marien-Hospiz. St. Joseph-Stift opened the first in-patient hospice in Dresden today. As such a hospice has been missing in Dresden up to now, an important gap in care has been closed. Photo: Robert Michael/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa (Photo by Robert Michael/picture alliance via Getty Images)
Robert Michael/picture alliance via Getty ImagesA Rowan County woman is facing charges that she failed to report the death of her 78-year old boyfriend whose body she kept in his home for days.
WBTV reports Jennifer Ferguson was living with the victim. Investigators the man did have a terminal illness and was in hospice care. They say a hospice nurse was making a routine visit and noticed the man was dead.
Investigators believe the man had been dead for at least three days. They say Ferguson told them she had been caring for him and talking with him. She has since been arrested and charged with failure to report a death as well as cited for possessing marijuana.
Authorities say even though the man was ill, they will still investigate his death and are waiting for autopsy results.
Ferguson is now out on bond, but public records show she's had a history with breaking the law. In 2014, she was charged with drug trafficking. Deputies say she used a phoney prescription to buy 250 methadone tablets at a local pharmacy.
In 2008, Ferguson, was convicted of felony accessory after the fact of second-degree murder. She and and four others were accused of helping to cover up a 2006 murder and hiding the body in woods.
Ferguson was released from prison in 2011 after serving almost five years.
