A former model has died at a Georgia nursing home, eaten alive by parasitic mites due to a scabies infestation in a shocking incident. Rebecca Zeni, 93, died from Scabies while at Sepherds Hill Nursing Home in LaFayette back in 2015, prompting an investigation, according to news reports.

The autopsy report determined that she died due to septicemia from crusted scabies. State health officials knew there was a scabies outbreak at that particular facility, but did not bother to investigate the matter, according to news station 11 Alive. Scabies is caused by microscopic mites that burrow into the upper layer of the skin, where it lays its eggs and lives its life.

Zeni had worked at a naval yard during World War II during her youth, and she modeled in New York City as well as worked at a television station, according to the report. She had been placed in a nursing home by her daughter in 2010 as she was suffering from dementia. Now, Zeni’s family is filing suit against Pruit Health, which is responsible for the nursing home in question.

“There was a conversation at this nursing home with a health care provider about being careful about touching Ms. Zeni’s hand for fear that it might fall off her body,” Stephen Chance, the family’s lawyer, told 11Alive.

Dr. Kris Sperry, a forensic pathologist who looked over the autopsy report, told 11 Alive that it was “one of the most horrendous things” he had ever seen, and that hundreds of millions of mites were burrowed inside Zeni’s body when she died. Even worse, he believes she suffered a painful death.