Property owner Robert Mills inspects damage left behind after Partnerships in Community Living was evicted from the home at 2741 Ruth Dr. in east Medford. The doorway area is where pools of blood were found after Barbara "Bobbie" Kolada was fatally injured Feb. 20, apparently by a developmentally disabled resident of the home. 

Group home owner Partnerships in Community Living has been evicted from the house in east Medford where caregiver Barbara “Bobbie” Kolada was fatally injured Feb. 20, as well as from a house the company leased across the street.

The two homes, located at 2732 and 2741 Ruth Dr., were vacated last week.

The owner of the properties, Bob Mills, said both properties had been extensively damaged. Mills and neighbors on the street said the damage serves as a reminder of the turmoil neighbors endured for more than a decade leading up to Kolada’s death.

Neighbors interviewed last week recounted years of frightening behaviors by group home residents, calls to law enforcement and even injuries suffered by some neighbors at the hands of PCL clients.

Kolada, 66, suffered a broken neck and severe head injuries — apparently at the hands of a developmentally disabled man for whom she provided care at 2741 Ruth Dr.

Kolada died March 27 after five weeks in intensive care at Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center. A Medford police investigation into Kolada’s death has been forwarded to District Attorney Beth Heckert, who will decide whether to pursue charges in the case. PCL has maintained that there is no proof Kolada was injured by the resident.

“To our knowledge, there has been no medical or legal conclusion that Bobbie’s injuries were the result of an interaction with one of the individuals in our care,” Joanne Fuhrman, PCL co-founder and CEO, said in a written statement to the Rogue Valley Times Thursday.

Kolada worked for PCL for most of the past decade and had been injured numerous times on the job, including by the man accused of causing the injuries that led to her death, according to co-workers and family members.

Mills said he began the eviction process in February and issued a 90-day eviction notice March 29. He said he learned of Kolada’s death in mid-May after his property caretaker, Caroline Brown, saw a five-part series in the Rogue Valley Times about Kolada’s death.

“When I read about what happened, that she had died, it was just disbelief,” Mills said.

The man accused of attacking Kolada was described by PCL employees as a 6-foot-3, nonverbal, developmentally disabled man in his 30s who weighs close to 300 pounds. The 5-foot-4 Kolada was working alone when she was injured, and was found hours later when her relief showed up for work, according to the 911 call of the incident.

Kolada told family members, before slipping into a coma, that the man became angry and started hurting her when she couldn’t connect his computer to Wi-Fi. The last thing she remembered after walking away was the man coming up behind her.

No police report about Kolada’s injuries and death were ever filed, largely because of PCL’s claim that Kolada’s injuries were accidental. After being contacted by the Rogue Valley Times, family members of Kolada asked police to investigate.

Heckert said the case has been assigned and a determination will be made about how to proceed.

Touring the homes on Ruth Drive

Mills, a retired North Medford High shop teacher who lives in Portland, invited the Rogue Valley Times to see the extent of damage in the homes on Ruth Drive.

Mills said he purchased the house at 2741 Ruth Dr., in 1997 for use as his personal residence.

He purchased the house at 2732 Ruth Dr. in 2012 and remodeled the home before renting it to PCL, to serve as a home for juvenile females with developmental disabilities. Four years later, he rented the home at 2741 Ruth Dr. to PCL to house a pair of developmentally disabled men.

“We bought the one at 2732 to fix it up as a rental. It took me three years to remodel that house … now it’s trashed,” Mills said.

“I replaced every window, every door. I refinished all the floors. It was an amazing change. I planted the grass in the backyard myself.”

Mills said he was frequently denied access by PCL to his two houses. A walk-through of the properties in February prompted the eviction, he said.

“As soon as we saw how bad of condition the houses were in, that was it,” he said. “We gave them through June 30.”

During a visit to the house June 30, Mills opened the garage door at 2741 Ruth Dr., revealing piles of debris and scattered rodent feces.

“And this is after they had cleaners come in to try and clean it up,” Brown said.

Throughout the house, doors were split in two or bore large holes. Drawers were missing from built-in cabinets. Walls bore holes where keypads used to lock doors had been removed, or where they had been kicked in.

Drywall patches covered walls throughout the house at 2732 Ruth Dr. Wall boards with heavy plastic on one side had been used to camouflage more damage. Mills said the damage to both properties would cost tens of thousands of dollars to repair.

In a statement to the Rogue Valley Times Thursday, PCL said, “In April, PCL met with the landlord from the two homes and discussed repairs that needed to be done by the owner to make them more livable. We agreed to shift the lease to a month-to-month agreement. After that discussion, the landlords decided to remodel the properties, so the lease was not renewed, but both parties agreed to a 90-day notice. As with any rental home that has been lived in by the same tenants for 10 years, we are working with the landlord to come to an agreement on making reasonable repairs to the home at PCL’s expense. In the meantime, the individuals in our care are happily settled into their new homes.”

Neighbors felt unsafe

“It’s really sad to think of her lying here waiting for help,” Brown said of Kolada, while touring the dining room in the house at 2741 Ruth Dr., where pools of blood were found. Kolada was discovered by her shift change in a bathroom on the other side of the house, but she appears to have been injured first in the dining room, according to investigators. 

“She was about my age. A smaller woman. She shouldn’t have been alone,” Brown said.

Mills said Kolada’s injuries were the culmination of a decade of chaos for the neighborhood. Residents of 2732 Ruth Dr. were often seen running from the home, being chased by employees, neighbors said. 

Neighbor Carla Seig remembered one client, whom she described as “a Sasquatch of a man,” who screamed constantly, pounded on his chest, and trespassed onto surrounding properties “making neighbors feel really unsafe.” 

Seig, who has lived on the street for years, said she once called a 911 when she saw a PCL resident attack a female caregiver in the street.

“He would escape multiple times a day, and they’d all run out and chase him,” she said. “One day, I was out front, and I heard a girl screaming bloody murder, ‘Help me, help me, save me!’ at the top of her lungs,” Seig said.

“When we called 911, the dispatcher could hear her screaming. I remember she said, ‘Give me the address.’ And when I tell her the house number, the dispatcher goes, ‘Oh,’” intimating that dispatchers were aware of the property, Seig said.

Seig said her mother, a retired sheriff’s deputy who lived two houses away, was once brutally attacked by a resident of the juvenile home.

“One day, one of the girls got out of the house and ran down and started repeatedly kicking my mom and then spit on her. She was on her hands and knees. It was the same girl who ran naked through the neighborhood all the time,” Seig said.

Longtime Ruth Drive neighbor Christy Herrick admitted a feeling of relief that PCL had moved elsewhere.

“I’ve been here a long time — over 20 years. I did not enjoy having them as neighbors,” Herrick said.

“There was a lot of yelling and screaming all the time. They would throw stuff over my fence. … I’d see the kids take off many times. They’d just start walking down the street and (employees) would have to go chase them down,” Herrick said. “But I was kind of fearful of the ones across the street.”

Herrick said she witnessed “a lot of screaming and violence” at 2741 Ruth Dr., where Kolada was brutally injured.

“I really try to stay out of stuff and just keep to myself. I was mostly worried because I have a teenage daughter, and the obvious violence going on across the street scared me. I just never realized the extent of it until this all happened,” she said.

“I was home when police and ambulances were there that night, when (Kolada) was injured.”

Herrick and Seig said neighbors should have been made aware of security concerns with the more violent PCL residents.

“My son said, ‘If a pedophile moves into the neighborhood, they have to tell us, but somebody that could kill us lives on our street and we don’t get to know?’” Seig said, referring to privacy rules.

Nick Dunn, whose backyard on Lawrence Avenue abuts the backyard at 2741 Ruth Dr., said it was curious that neighbors were not made aware of potential safety concerns.

“I had no idea these people were moving in, which does seem a bit unfair to other residents. I knew about the kids’ home, and I’d hear them screaming for hours. With the adult house, I could hear outbursts in my backyard, but I thought, of course, it’s unpleasant, but … we all just try to be accepting,” Dunn said.

“But, as my son got older, I didn’t want him outside in the backyard with this guy screaming profanities for hours on end.”

“It does seem unfair to the community, when you suddenly have neighbors who really could be killers, and yet there’s no mention at all. It’s so hard. You know, I want to be doing what’s best for everyone. … I don’t know how to think about that in the most fair way. What’s fair for them? What’s fair for the community? There are obviously no easy answers.”

Herrick said the neighborhood feels safer with the two homes now vacated by PCL.

“I think all of us are just happy they’re gone out of the neighborhood,” she added. “But I sure do feel sorry for whatever neighborhood they’ve moved to. Those people … will just have no idea.”

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include PCL’s statement that “there has been no medical or legal conclusion that Bobbie’s injuries were the result of an interaction with one of the individuals in (PCL’s) care.”