Dan Shively had been a bank president who built floats for July Fourth parades in Cody, Wyoming, and adored fly-fishing with his sons. Jeffrey Dowd had been an auto mechanic who ran a dog rescue and hosted a Sunday blues radio show in Santa Fe. By the time their lives intersected at Canyon Creek Memory Care Community in Billings, Montana, both were deep in the grips of dementia and exhibiting some of the disease's terrible traits.
Shively had been wandering lost in his neighborhood, having outbursts at home, and leaving the gas stove on. Dowd previously had been hospitalized for being confused, suicidal, and agitated, medical records filed in U.S.
District Court in Billings show. When Dowd entered Canyon Creek, managers warned employees in a note later filed in court that he could be "physically/verbally abusive when frustrated." On Shively's fourth day at Canyon Creek, carrying a knife and fork, he walked over to a dining room table where Dowd was sitting.
Dowd told Shively to keep the knife away from his coffee, according to a witness statement filed in court. Shively, who at 5-foot-2 and 125 pounds was half Dowd's weight and 10 inches shorter, turned to walk away, but Dowd stood up and shoved Shively so hard that when he hit the floor, his skull fractured and brain hemorrhaged, according to a lawsuit his family filed against Canyon Creek. "The doctor said there's not much they could do about it," his son Casey Shively said in an interview.
Dan Shively died five days later .