KINDRED, N.D. (KFGO-AM) -- A rural Kindred man has been charged with a felony in the death of his brother.
Ronald Simmons, 61, is charged with endangering a vulnerable adult. A complaint filed by a Cass County prosecutor says Simmons failed to take care of his brother, Bruce, who was found dead in a house on their property last January.
Investigators say the furnace wasn't working, there was no running water and the house was full of garbage and mice when they responded to a call to check on Simmons. Deputies reported that say the smell was so bad that two of them got sick and they couldn't re-enter the home without protective masks. A haz-mat response team from the Casselton Fire Dept. was called in.
Ronald Simmons said his brother suffered from mental illness and hadn't left the house for four to five years.
The coroner concluded that the cause of death was hypothermia.