Joseph Polizzi faces criminally negligent homicide charges after his 89-year-old mother died from untreated bedsores in an unheated shed. New York State Police say he failed to provide care while living nearby. The arrest came more than a year after her death in Carlisle.
New York State Police arrested 64-year-old Joseph Polizzi on Thursday, charging him with criminally negligent homicide and endangering the welfare of a vulnerable elderly person. He was booked into Schoharie County Correctional Facility with bail set at $5,000 cash, $10,000 bond, or $50,000 partially secured bond. Polizzi is accused in the death of his mother, Nancy Polizzi, whom he was her primary caretaker as she became unable to walk, feed herself, or speak in her final weeks. Authorities say he did not provide adequate medical care, leading to her death. On February 23, 2025, troopers responded to a property in Carlisle, New York, for an unattended death and found Nancy Polizzi in a shed without heat or running water, where she had lived since August 2024. An autopsy determined she died from sepsis due to untreated gangrenous decubitus ulceration, or bedsores, ruling the manner of death a homicide. Carlisle lies about 40 miles west of Albany in upstate New York, where temperatures dropped to 4 degrees Fahrenheit in February 2025.