A Washington state jail is facing explosive allegations that staff ignored a visibly deteriorating inmate for days before she died alone on a cold cell floor.

The family of 58-year-old DeAnna Davis has filed a federal lawsuit against King County and several staff members over her March 2023 death at the King County Correctional Facility in Seattle. The suit accuses deputies and medical personnel of deliberate indifference to a serious medical need, arguing that Davis’s constitutional rights under the 14th Amendment were violated.

Her attorneys have described the case in stark terms: “death by observation.”

According to the lawsuit, Davis’s health unraveled over four days while she was in custody, suffering from persistent vomiting and what court filings call “severe diarrhea.” Family attorneys allege that despite obvious warning signs, no one intervened in a meaningful way to prevent what they say was a foreseeable death from dehydration and electrolyte imbalance.

“Everyone noticed. No one acted,” the complaint states.

Davis had struggled with mental health challenges for years following the death of her husband. Between 2018 and 2023, she was arrested roughly 30 times, according to the lawsuit. On March 17, 2023, she was arrested by Seattle police on suspicion of trespassing at a Lowe’s store. The suit describes her as screaming, incoherent, and clearly in the midst of a mental health crisis at the time of her arrest.

From the moment she entered the jail, Davis was ill, the lawsuit claims. She began experiencing intense gastrointestinal distress almost immediately. Yet, attorneys allege, nurses failed to monitor her vitals after the first day and did not escalate her care to a physician or midlevel provider.

As Davis’s condition worsened, she reportedly began refusing medication. The lawsuit contends that medical staff made no serious effort to determine whether she was competent to refuse treatment or to consult a doctor about how to proceed.

The scene inside her cell, as described in the complaint, is harrowing. Corrections officers allegedly found Davis multiple times covered in her own vomit and diarrhea. She was moved between clean cells repeatedly as her bedding became soiled. At one point, according to the filing, she was naked, lying on the floor, her face covered by a smock or blanket.

The suit accuses staff of failing to conduct proper cell checks and not ensuring that they visually assessed her condition when checking on her. One staff member allegedly noted in writing, “hopefully, nursing can assess her again.”

The family’s attorneys responded sharply in the filing: “Hope is insufficient.”

On March 21, 2023, four days after entering the facility, a guard found Davis unresponsive. According to the lawsuit, she had been dead for some time. Her fingers were reportedly stiff and difficult to uncurl to place a pulse oximeter. Her mouth was rigid, complicating efforts to insert a suction catheter. She was described as pale, blue, cold, and with parts of her body yellowed, as if jaundiced.

The official cause of death, according to the lawsuit, was dehydration and an electrolyte imbalance after days of untreated illness.

Her family’s complaint paints her final days as “torture and misery,” alleging she was left sick, cold, and dehumanized.

King County has not publicly responded in detail to the specific allegations in the lawsuit. The litigation is likely to focus heavily on whether jail staff met constitutional standards for detainee care and whether Davis’s worsening condition should have triggered immediate medical intervention.