Mugger May Have Robbed Woman of Life

The woman who grabbed Mabel Florey’s purse robbed her of more than $40 in grocery money.

The mugger also took the 80-year-old’s independence and, authorities said Thursday, perhaps her life.

Mrs. Florey, a great-grandmother, died Wednesday, more than a month after being pushed to the ground and robbed of her purse near her apartment in Newhall.

Doctors at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital in Valencia have told police that the cause of death appears to be head injuries suffered in the June 18 attack. Investigators note that more than a month had elapsed, and that Mrs. Florey also had undergone cataract surgery about a week before her death.

An autopsy will be performed, probably today or Saturday, officials said.

Whatever the cause of her death, the independence that Mrs. Florey prided herself upon vanished on a walk to a grocery along San Fernando Road.

“She felt somebody grab her arm,” said Bruce Edwards, Mrs. Florey’s son-in-law. “She turned around, and that was the last she remembered.”

Witnesses said Mrs. Florey was attacked by a woman in her 20s or 30s. At the hospital, Mrs. Florey was treated for facial cuts and released, hospital spokeswoman Ann Ingram said.

She was a quiet, church-going widow who had moved to Newhall about 13 years ago from Wyoming to be near her daughter. Edwards said the attack left her weak and angry.

“She deteriorated quite a bit,” he said. “She was a lot more feeble. Her eye was swollen shut for three or four days. She stayed black and blue for nearly a month.”

Reluctantly, she moved in with the Edwardses, leaving the apartment where she had done her own laundry, cooking and cleaning.

“She wanted to get back to her apartment,” Edwards said, but “she was just too weak and a little unstable.”

Louise Edwards, Mrs. Florey’s daughter, said, “It was very traumatic for her. The first few days it was really trying times for her because she was in a lot of pain.”

Mrs. Florey recovered enough to undergo cataract surgery at Newhall Hospital in mid-July, Edwards said. On July 21, about a week later, she collapsed in the front yard. Earlier she had complained of severe headaches, he said.

Despite emergency brain surgery, she went into a coma and died Wednesday at 2:40 p.m.