Former rehab employee pleads guilty

NORWALK — A former employee at a rehab facility who was indicted alongside another former employee for the death of a patient recently pleaded guilty. The charges relate to an August 2023 death at the former Praxis of the Firelands by Landmark Recovery, located at 725 Wessor Ave in Willard. The facility remains open today as a rehab facility under new ownership, which is unaffiliated with the former facility owner and the defendants in the case. On May 13, Heather N. Owens, 51, of the 100 block of High St., Bellevue, pleaded guilty to one count of gross patient neglect, a first-degree misdemeanor. Owens pleaded guilty to the single charge in exchange for the following charges to be dismissed: • One count of tampering with records, a first-degree misdemeanor • One count of patient neglect, a second-degree misdemeanor • One count of forgery, a fifth-degree felony Due to Owens' plea, the maximum sentence she could face is about six months in jail, according to court records. Owens is scheduled to be sentenced at 8:45 a.m. on July 1. Owens and her co-defendant, Kelly J. Quillen, 37, of the 100 block of Overlook Road, Huron, were both indicted by a Huron County grand jury in July 2025 for their roles in the August 2023 death of a 29-year-old woman. An article from Cleveland19 identified the patient who died as Samantha Thompson. Quillen was indicted on the following charges: • One count of tampering with evidence, a third-degree felony • One count of forgery, a fifth-degree felony • One count of gross patient neglect, a first-degree misdemeanor • One count of tampering with records, a first-degree misdemeanor • One count of patient neglect, a second-degree misdemeanor As of Friday morning, Quillen remains out of the Huron County Jail on a $10,000 bond and has a court hearing scheduled for 9 a.m. on Tuesday. Background The investigation into Thompson's death began on Aug. 28, 2023, when two Willard police officers responded to the former facility in Willard shortly after noon for a report of a female patient who was not breathing and had no pulse, according to a Willard police report. When officers arrived, they saw Willard EMS providing chest compressions to the woman on the floor with a CPR device before being transferred to Mercy Hospital in Willard, the report states. Staff at the facility reportedly told the officers that they checked on Thompson around 11:30 a.m. on Aug. 28, 2023, and she was "found to be fine," the police report states. However, during the next scheduled check, about 30 minutes later, staff said they discovered Thompson not breathing. The staff additionally told officers that Thompson was in their facility for "alcohol abuse," the report states. When the officers searched the room where Thompson was found, they reportedly found "no drugs or drug paraphernalia" and that there was nothing to suggest foul play. At around 4:30 p.m., officers arrived at Mercy Hospital's emergency room. A hospital police officer told them that after removing the CPR device from Thompson, she had "rigor mortis in her arms," and her body temperature dropped from "98.6 degrees" to "82 degrees," the report states. At the time of Thompson's death, the rehab facility was owned by Landmark Recovery, a Tennessee-based company that offered drug and alcohol treatment programs in several states. In June 2024, the former Landmark Recovery building in Willard was acquired by Seacrest Recovery Centers, a Florida-based company that has substance abuse treatment centers located in Florida, New Jersey and Ohio, and is unaffiliated with Landmark Recovery.