Deaths of Utahns with disabilities call attention to safety in group homes

Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes

SALT LAKE CITY – Several Utahns with disabilities have died while in the care of group homes in recent years, with advocates and family members saying many of those deaths were preventable.

The KSL Investigators examined three tragedies since 2022 that have drawn attention to safety in facilities overseen by the state.

In April 2022, Chien Nguyen walked out of the Hidden Hollow Care Center in Orem and into the road, where he was hit and killed by an employee's car. According to Utah's Disability Law Center, Nguyen had attempted suicide a day earlier and had gone one to two weeks without his psychiatric medication that addressed suicidal ideation.

In November 2023, another untimely death occurred. Malachi Portwood, a 16-year-old boy with autism, escaped from Future Rising in Salt Lake County.

"He was an elopement risk and they knew that, and so they were supposed to have alarms in the door, so if he went out the door, they would know," said attorney Nate Crippes with the Disability Law Center.

But the agency did not install alarms, even though Malachi had run away a week earlier, Crippes said. In the weeks before the teenager's death, Crippes said an employee raised concerns three times to administrators at Utah's Division for People with Disabilities, but the state failed to act.

The day of his death, Malachi crashed a van and seriously injured a motorcyclist. He was shot and killed by police trying to stop him. Now the employees who were caring for Malachi are under criminal investigation, with police saying they lied about when and how he went missing.

"What scares us the most is there's other kids with these people," Autumn Portwood, Malachi's mother, told KSL.

Nguyen and Portwood's experiences were focal points in the Disability Law Center's complaint to federal health administrators last year, alleging the state isn't meeting its obligations to make sure Utahns are safe in facilities with state licenses and contracts.

In a statement to KSL, a Utah Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson said the agency "remains committed to owning these challenges."

"We take the health and safety of those in our licensed and certified facilities seriously," the statement continues.

Crippes said problems remain. He told KSL that some smaller private agencies providing care to Utahns with disabilities are taking on clients who require a high level of supervision and care.

"Are they capable of providing those services? What we see in at least a few instances is, no," Crippes said.

The budget for Malachi's care, according to the Disability Law Center: $400,000 per year.

DHHS wouldn't talk about specific cases. But a spokesperson told KSL they hold providers accountable when they don't meet health and safety standards, giving out warnings and sometimes even taking away licenses.

The facility where Nguyen died lost its license and closed in June 2023, after it was criticized in a report from the Disability Law Center titled "License to Mismanage."

The company caring for Malachi was fined $500 for the events surrounding his death before the state ended its contract last year.

Another Utahn's death, in 2022, was the focus of a KSL investigation.

Melissa Ehlers said her daughter Arianna died in a group home she was never supposed to be in, and one she says didn't monitor her daughter closely enough when she had seizures at night.

"We thought she was in good hands," Ehlers said.

Ehlers and KSL tried for more than two years to get answers from the state about what it learned from her daughter's death.

The state no longer contracts with the facility where Arianna died, but told KSL that decision was "unrelated to this incident."