The New York daughter of a woman who died in an Evans assisted living home from a fatal dose of morphine surrendered Wednesday morning on indictments for malice and felony murder. She was later released on bond.
Rachel Elaine Waters, 42, turned herself in early Wednesday in the death of 74-year-old Marsha Sprayberry Foster, according to Columbia County authorities. Her attorneys said she drove for three days from New York to surrender.
Waters was allowed to attend a 2 p.m. bond hearing Wednesday before Judge Barry A. Fleming. During that hearing, Judge Fleming gave her a $200,000 bond and ordered her to surrender her passport, not travel outside the U.S., and possess no firearms. Her two “significant others” also surrendered their passports, which is significant since the suspect has published plans for an April wedding and honeymoon in Indonesia.
An indictment says that Waters administered a lethal dose of morphine on July 12, 2023, while her mother was at the Marshall Pines assisted living on North Belair Road. The cause of death was determined in an autopsy, showing that excessive use of the unprescribed morphine was the reason for her death. Foster had Alzheimer’s disease, and the morphine was reportedly left behind by hospice workers and used by the daughter without authorization.
Waters agreed to drive to Georgia from New York to surrender rather than make authorities spend the money to go and get her, which could explain the agreement to allow an immediate bond hearing, which was attended by dozens of Water’s supporters. During that hearing, Assistant District Attorney Natalie Paine told the judge that she took no position on bond, adding that Waters had no criminal history and was not believed to be a flight risk.
Meanwhile, prosecutors said Waters raised the suspicions of nurses about how to speed up her mother’s death. Paine also said that the victim was in severe pain and had tried to kill herself twice in the weeks before her death.
Waters’ Internet search history showed searches about possible criminal charges in the hours after her other’s death. An autopsy and toxicology tests took 13 months to determine morphine was the cause of death. Morphine use is common for managing pain for end-of-life care, but it can be lethal in excessive amounts, according to the Mayo Clinic. Hospice and palliative care providers follow established medical guidelines to ensure doses are appropriate for symptom relief without hastening death.
Waters lives in Sunnyside, New York. She was Foster’s only biological child. At the time of her passing, an executive director at Marshall Pines reported the death to the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office as suspicious, and the autopsy revealed the cause.
Yet, Waters posted about her mother’s death on social media, showing a picture of her holding her mother’s hand. She also wrote in an obituary that her mother “died in the comfort of her daughter’s embrace soon after sunrise on July 12, 2023.”
The victim has two surviving siblings, who told prosecutors that jail was not appropriate in the case, since Waters was trying to provide mercy to her dying mother.
