Grant Woods hired to review Mesa facility where 90-year-old died in van

PHOENIX – Former Arizona Attorney General Grant Woods has been hired to conduct an organizational review of the Mesa long-term care facility where a 90-year-old resident died last month after being left in a transport van.

Canyon Winds Assisted Living and Memory Care hired the high-profile attorney “to lead a comprehensive independent review of all aspects of operations,” the facility said in a press release Tuesday.

On July 22, Lawrence Bearse was found dead in the van in the parking lot of the facility near McDowell Road and the Loop 202 Red Mountain Freeway.

Bearse’s granddaughter told ABC15 that Bearse had advanced Alzheimer’s disease, was wheelchair-bound and couldn’t communicate. She also said the family believes he’d been in the vehicle for at least 20 hours before a facility worker realized he was there.

Woods said in the release that his goal is to “make sure we understand exactly what happened in this incident, and to ensure that every resident who calls Canyon Winds home is as safe as possible, as healthy as possible, and has full confidence in his or her caregivers 24-7-365.”

The Mesa Police Department and Arizona Department of Health Services are investigating the incident. Canyon Winds said it is fully cooperating with the investigations.

“Nothing like this has ever before happened at Canyon Winds,” John Berry, Manager of Canyon Winds Retirement LLC, said in the release. “We will do everything possible to make sure such an incident never happens again.”

Canyon Winds said Woods and his team will have access to all aspects of the facility’s “operations, protocols and business practices.”

Related

Elderly man found dead in transport van of Mesa retirement facilityTired of the dry heat? Netflix’s new reality series ‘Arizona Hot’ is going to make it steamyStabbing leaves 29-year-old man dead outside Phoenix-area restaurantHiker in critical condition after severe heatstroke on Camelback Mountain, rescued by helicopterValley’s first permanent outdoor Ferris wheel opens at Arizona BoardwalkPeoria approves $264,000 in arts and culture grants for fiscal year 2027