BYRON, Ga. — Crawford County Sheriff Lewis Walker says there's not enough evidence to charge the man who allegedly chased a hospice nurse away from her house call this week.
Walker says that's because the evidence is mostly based on each side's story. While LaNette Rainey worried about getting to her location safely, her patient, Sandra Duffell, was left wondering what happened.
Many people in our Facebook comment section have shown support for Rainey, who says she was chased nearly three miles away from her Byron house call Monday.
"Might have got lost or something," Duffell said.
That's what she figured when Rainey didn't show for her first appointment. After an hour, she shrugged it off and went to bed.
"No one called to let us know what was going on," she explained.
It wasn't until later that Duffell found out what happened to Rainey.
"I hate it. I really do. They don't need to come out at night unless they know exactly where they're going to," Duffell said.
Many echoed the same, like fellow nurse Faye Tripp. She says many people don't realize the potential dangers of caring for a patient in a rural area.
Duffell says people have had trouble finding her house before, so she wasn't surprised to hear Rainey made a wrong turn.
"They just pulled in the driveway and pulled right back out," Duffell said.
Like countless others in our Facebook comments, Duffell's glad Rainey got home safely. She just wishes Rainey never had to be in that situation.
"I'm just glad she didn't get hurt as I said. And like I said, if they're going to come out at night, they need to know exactly what house they're going to," Duffell said.
We also heard from some of you who felt Sheriff Walker's response to the situation was insensitive.
Walker says his comment suggesting people try to find where they're going when it's daytime was only meant to be helpful. He says he does realize some people might not have that option.
Walker says Rainey can go before a judge to see if they'd grant a warrant for terroristic threats.
We reached out to District Attorney Anita Howard's office to see if she's considering any charges. On Friday morning, her team sent this to us:
"Our Office's involvement with cases normally begins after an arrest is made. We understand that Sheriff Louis Walker's position in regard to this situation is that there was insufficient probable cause that a crime had been committed for an arrest to have been made. Based upon our review of this report at the current time, our Office would concur with Sheriff Walker's assessment. Should, however, additional evidence be developed in the future, we, in conjunction with the Crawford County Sheriff's Office, would reassess the situation."