86-year-old found dead in sweltering 99-degree room at assisted-living facility

An 86-year-old woman was found dead in her Massachusetts assisted-living apartment, where the thermostat read 99 degrees, months after the facility faced state enforcement action.An aide found Sheila Szczypinski unresponsive in bed at Golden Pond Assisted Living & Memory Care in Hopkinton on September 30 while arriving for scheduled bathing assistance, according to police reports obtained by NBC Boston.First responders found the apartment "neat and orderly,” but the thermostat reading 99 degrees. Szczypinski’s son reportedly told police she "got confused easily" and "may have inadvertently turned the heat on too high,” according to WCVB.The cause of death remains unknown as Middlesex District Attorney's Office investigators examine whether the extreme heat played a role.Golden Pond has faced repeated scrutiny from Massachusetts regulators. The facility failed a state compliance review in 2023, the same summer three residents died within a week, according to NBC Boston. In January 2025, state regulators suspended its certification and halted new admissions after finding serious safety and medical violations. The suspension was lifted the following month.Sheila Szczypinski, 86, was found unresponsive in her apartment at Golden Pond Assisted Living Facility in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, on September 30, with the thermostat reading 99 degrees Fahrenheit (Google Maps)Douglas Noble, director of operations at The Communities at Golden Pond, released a statement to CBS Boston Wednesday about Szczypinski's death."The Communities at Golden Pond, an assisted living residence, is closely cooperating with its regulatory agencies regarding the death of a resident last week," Noble said. "Our HVAC system is professionally maintained by a licensed contractor on both a seasonal and as-needed basis and was working properly at the time of this incident. Each apartment in our community has an individual thermostat that residents can operate directly, although we encourage our residents to push their call button for staff assistance with it."Szczypinski had lived at Golden Pond for about seven weeks in an independent-care unit, where residents manage their own medication and meals while staff assists with personal care.She was last seen the previous afternoon during a supervised trip to Walmart, according to reports. Staff told officials that Szczypinski had not shown any signs of illness. Police reportedly spoke with the facilities manager for Golden Pond, who, according to CBS Boston, stated: “That the building had been switched from A/C to heat the previous day. He stated that none of the other rooms in the building were experiencing heat issues, but that it was possible that [she] could have attempted to use the 'cool' setting on her thermostat, which would have continued to blow warm air into the room."However, other employees told CBS Boston anonymously that temperatures soared in multiple rooms after the facility switched to heat that week."It was so hot you couldn't breathe," one employee said about the Szczypinski’s room.Staff said the heat was overwhelming throughout the unit and that they spent several days moving residents to common areas equipped with portable air conditioners and fans because they believed the HVAC system was malfunctioning.The Independent has contacted Golden Pond Assisted Living & Memory Care and the Middlesex District Attorney's Office for comment.