State finds caregiver stole opioids from Hermantown senior residents

A staff member at The Pillars of Hermantown diverted painkillers meant for two vulnerable residents, including one with dementia, inside the assisted living and dementia care facility at 4110 Lavaque Road in Hermantown, in St. Louis County.

The Minnesota Department of Health concluded its report on April 16, 2026, and found evidence that the staff member took resident #1’s oxycodone and resident #2’s hydromorphone for personal use. The case is especially troubling because one of the residents had dementia among the listed diagnoses, and the other lived in the facility’s assisted living memory care unit.

Investigators did not rely on a single source. The report says they reviewed resident records, the facility’s internal investigation materials, apartment camera footage, facility camera footage, a law-enforcement report, personnel files, staff schedules, and facility policies and procedures. MDH also contacted law enforcement during the investigation.

Resident #1’s diagnoses included dementia, osteoarthritis and spinal stenosis. Resident #2 had dementia and right shoulder pain listed among the diagnoses. Those records show why medication control in memory care is more than an administrative task. When opioids disappear, residents can be left without the pain relief their doctors prescribed, while families are forced to question whether a building meant to protect frail adults is doing its most basic job.

Minnesota’s assisted living licensure law, Chapter 144G, was passed in 2019 and updated in 2020 to set standards for resident rights, public health and safety protections, and dementia care. MDH says its assisted-living program uses on-site surveys and enforcement, and the agency’s drug diversion guidance warns that theft of controlled substances by health care professionals can harm patients and jeopardize safety. The state also says diversion-prevention work in long-term care includes a pathway released in 2019 with the Department of Human Services, LeadingAge Minnesota and Care Providers of Minnesota.

MDH says the drugs most often tied to theft or loss events include hydrocodone, oxycodone, hydromorphone, morphine sulfate and fentanyl. Those names matter in places like Hermantown because they are the same medications that support daily comfort for older adults who may not be able to speak up when something is wrong.

The broader record shows this is not an isolated problem. A PubMed-indexed study used 107 Minnesota Department of Health substantiated drug-diversion reports from 2013 to 2021, and a Star Tribune report said more than 11,300 medications were stolen from at least 368 residents of Minnesota nursing homes and assisted-living sites over eight years. For families across St. Louis County, the lesson is blunt: in dementia care, medication security is resident safety.