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Ill teen unaided till breath stops
By AMY HERDY © St. Petersburg Times, published January 25, 2001 TAMPA -- As Mari Conroy's condition worsened, her family lived their lives around her. When cancer began to weaken the 17-year-old's slight frame, she lay on the living room couch, an island in a sea of garbage that began to collect. As the tumor that grew in her chest made it difficult for her to eat, she was given Ensure nutritional drink. When she wet herself, she was placed in adult diapers. Yet, officials said Wednesday, neither her mother, 52-year-old Muriel Conroy, her father, 53-year-old William Conroy, nor her 29-year-old brother, Patrick, who also lived in the South Tampa home, sought help until the tumor that protruded from her chest grew to such proportion that she couldn't breathe. Her father and brother Patrick took her to the hospital at MacDill Air Force Base on Dec. 9. Mari, who was unconscious, had wasted to 60 pounds. She was transferred to Tampa General Hospital, where doctors diagnosed Hodgkin's disease. She remained unconscious Wednesday and in serious condition. Police have charged William Conroy, a postal carrier, with aggravated child abuse and three counts of child abuse. He was later released from jail on $4,000 bond. Mrs. Conroy, who sold Avon products, fled the state with Patrick and her twin 15-year-old sons before she could be questioned, police said. Conroy, reached at his home Wednesday, said he was unaware his daughter had cancer until she was admitted to the hospital. "My wife thought everything was fine," he said. "I never looked." The family has lived in Tampa since 1984 and never enrolled the children in school, Tampa police Detective Jackie Keene said. Neighbors said the children, often shoeless and dirty, would flee in panic if approached by an adult, and hide. "They were afraid of everyone," said Sherri Curl, who lives two doors from the family. Curl said she had not seen Mari for a year. Her mother would leave home in the morning to care for an elderly neighbor, she said, and smile at everyone she saw along the way. "She said she home-schooled, but she was never home," she said. "You'd have never known that girl was lying in there, dying. "That just mortifies me." Keene said the inside of the family's single-story, block home at 7010 Fitzgerald St. was the "filthiest house I've seen in 17 years" of being a police officer. "I had to crawl over soiled mattresses to get to the door." She said roaches swarmed everywhere, even inside the phone. The children's bedrooms, even that of 29-year-old Patrick, contained toys, movies and posters like those found in a young child's room, Keene said. So much trash surrounded the couch, Keene said, that Mari "couldn't have gotten to anything if she wanted." After the girl stopped breathing early on Dec. 9, she was taken to MacDill because Conroy, a retired Air Force master sergeant, has medical benefits, Keene said. Her mother visited her once, Keene said, then left a farewell note for Conroy at the hospital before she fled with the couple's sons. Officials said they fear for the safety of the twin boys. "I'm not sure they can protect themselves," Keene said. Conroy told detectives he didn't visit his daughter until after his arrest last month because his blood pressure was high. He told police his wife is afraid of doctors, Keene said, but that the couple has no religious beliefs that would prohibit seeking traditional medical care. She said Conroy had been treated for his high blood pressure and a sore knee at the base hospital. "He gave us a lot of different stories" about how his daughter's health deteriorated, Keene said, but only showed remorse when he was arrested. "The only time he cried was when I told him he was going to jail," she said. - Times researcher John Martin contributed to this report.
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