WAVERLY, Iowa (AP) — A northeastern Iowa woman has been charged with non-support of a dependent adult in the May death of a 77-year-old woman who had suffered severe burns. The Bremer County Sheriff’s Office says in a news release that 56-year-old Debra Kleppe, of Tripoli, was charged Thursday in the death of Sylvia Schwerin, of Sumner. The sheriff’s office says it was notified of Schwerin’s death on May 30, a day after she was taken to a community hospital. Investigators say she had been scalded over 20 percent of her body. Officials believe the burns happened by accident, but that Kleppe failed to seek medical treatment for them.
