Local

Care home operator turns herself into police

MARIETTA, Ga. — Marietta police tell Channel 2 Action News that a woman wanted for running an unlicensed care home has turned herself in.

Investigators had been searching for Raequel Penny, who they said had been running an unlicensed care home at a rental home in the Laurel Springs subdivision, allegedly keeping some of the residents in cramped space near unsanitary conditions.

Police told Channel 2's Ross Cavitt that tips had been flooding in since his story ran on Channel 2 Action News Monday.

"We were able to get quite a few leads as to the possible whereabouts of Penny," said David Baldwin with the Marietta Police Department.

But when police went to serve a search warrant to shut down the home, Penny and her residents had disappeared.

Cavitt talked to one of Penny's relatives by phone Tuesday, who said he thought the Marietta police were exaggerating the bad conditions inside the home, saying the pictures police shared of a moldy refrigerator and tiny rooms came from the basement of the home where no one had been staying.

This is Marietta's second case of an unlicensed care home in recent months. A woman running a house west of the Square also allegedly housed the elderly in hot and cramped conditions, and police urge anyone placing a loved one to do their homework first.

"Don't take someone's word for it they are actually licensed especially if that happens to be in the someone's home. Although the price may be right, the care may not," Baldwin said.

Officers said they are now working on reuniting and arranging proper care for the seniors who were under Penny's care.