A Florida caregiver was arrested after she allegedly disposed of the body of her longtime friend with dementia hours before reporting her missing.
Lori Hamilton was charged with disturbing a dead body following the death of Brenda Corbin in Cape Coral, according to online records viewed by Us.
Hamilton, 60, reported Corbin, 58, missing on May 20, 2025, and she told investigators that she believed Corbin left her home on foot in the middle of the night, according to a probable cause arrest affidavit viewed by Law & Crime.
Hamilton had power of attorney over Corbin, who previously lived in an assisted living home.
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She reportedly checked Corbin out of the Tampa facility in early May 2025 so that she could attend a celebration of life for a mutual friend. However, Hamilton never brought Corbin back to the facility because Hamilton was not happy with the care they provided for her.
Instead, Hamilton set up a bedroom for Corbin in her home and became her primary caregiver.
After Hamilton reported Corbin missing, she told police that she believed Corbin was potentially with a man who “held her against her will for four days” years earlier. Hamilton did not share many details when speaking to authorities, including how she and Corbin spent the days leading up to her disappearance.
“Hamilton could not explain what she and Brenda had done over the weekend,” investigators wrote in the affidavit. “All she said was that they had gone out but did not remember where they went or what they did. Hamilton did not seem too concerned about Brenda’s disappearance.”
Just days after Corbin was reported missing, Hamilton asked for help moving furniture from her home in a Facebook post and she never mentioned that her longtime friend was missing. Police said that Hamilton also never made any phone calls or efforts to help find Corbin amid the missing person’s search.
Detectives spoke with Hamilton’s neighbors during the investigation, and they revealed that they had not seen Corbin recently. Meanwhile, doorbell camera footage did not capture anything on the night Corbin allegedly snuck out of the house.
Police later learned that license plate reader data from Hamilton’s pickup truck and location data on her phone located her in the Fort Myers and Punta Gorda areas in the early hours of May 19, 2025. She was located in the Babcock Ranch Preserve near the intersection of Bermont Road and Chiquita Drive in Punta Gorda around 3:30 a.m.
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A major breakthrough in the case took place on May 23, 2025, when police found a badly decomposed body covered in brush off an access road in a nature preserve. An autopsy could not determine the cause or manner of death due to the state of the body’s decomposition, and police said the body was missing a lower leg and part of the left arm due after the corpse was seemingly attacked by animals.
Police then seized Hamilton’s truck and K-9s picked up the smell of human remains. Additionally, Corbin’s Social Security card and medications were found inside of Hamilton’s truck.
When police tried to get access to Hamilton’s phone, she refused to hand it over. Authorities also noted that she was unhelpful and combative amid the investigation.
Hamilton was ultimately arrested on Friday, August 7, and she is currently in custody at Charlotte County Jail, where she is being held on a $6,000 bond. She is next scheduled to appear in court on September 8.
It is not currently clear if Hamilton has entered a plea or retained legal counsel. The Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to Us’ request for comment regarding the case.
