A partially blind and disabled woman grew hotter, hungrier and more scared while she was strapped into a locked medical transport van without air conditioning for more than four hours, the Broward Sheriff’s Office says.
Carolyn Marie Roberson — who told deputies she can’t walk — is a dialysis patient who survived two strokes. The 57-year-old uses a wheelchair and can’t operate a cellphone, her daughter Shakira Breedlove said Friday.
Van driver Oscar Augusto Dorador, 38, told investigators he picked Roberson up from dialysis treatment in Tamarac and forgot she was inside his vehicle on Aug. 8. He parked the van at his residential community in Deerfield Beach, leaving Roberson trapped inside, the sheriff’s office said.
Dorador, who does not have a criminal record, gave his employer Ready2Transport a false address for his last stop, making it harder to find Roberson, an arrest report said. Efforts to reach Ready2Transport on Friday were not successful. The company has since fired him, according to court testimony.
Breedlove, 38, of Lauderdale Lakes, said her mother told her that she knew Dorador was not taking her home and asked where he was taking her.
“He never responded,” said Breedlove. “She asked him to take her home and he kept driving.”
As Roberson was sitting in the van, her nursing home called Breedlove to report she had not returned from dialysis treatment.
The nursing home director met Breedlove at the dialysis center, which was closed. Along with another sister, the women searched the dialysis center’s plaza, looking for Roberson.
At the same time, Breedlove said she was also calling LogistiCare, a transportation broker. She and her attorney Blake Dolman said LogistiCare subcontracts the patient ride service to Ready2Transport.
The night Roberson was missing, LogistiCare could not tell Breedlove where Dorador or her mother was, Breedlove said.
By 11 p.m., a security guard at Dorador’s community led deputies to Roberson, who was still inside the van.
