Hanson charged with involuntary manslaughter
Published 5:00 am Wednesday, October 21, 2026
A Nixa man was charged with involuntary manslaughter after he allegedly failed to get his mother medical care she needed, which reportedly led to her death on Tuesday, Oct. 13. Michael Hanson faces one county of First Degree involuntary manslaughter.
According to the probable cause statement in the case, Hanson drove his mother to Cox South Hospital on Wednesday, Sept. 23. The woman was nonverbal, and Hanson reportedly told the hospital staff that she’d been that way for days, and that they were homeless and his mother had been locked inside a tent in a storage unit.
A nurse at the hospital initially reported that the woman had “pressure ulcers, contusions, abrasions, and sepsis attributed to the pressure ulcers,” and the victim reportedly died on Tuesday, Oct. 13 from complications caused by the ulcers. An addendum to the nurse’s report “clarified that CV’s sepsis was due to MRSA bacteremia and documented a stage 4 sacral ulcer and non-traumatic rhabdomyolysis upon admission.”
A Nixa police officer interviewed Hanson, who described how he and his mother had traveled together after becoming homeless, seeking work. The officer reported that Hanson told him that on or around Sunday, Sept. 20, he believed that his mother had a stroke while they were in Kansas, but he continued to travel to Nixa instead of getting her medical care.
In Nixa, Hanson reportedly said, his mother stayed in a storage unit and slept in a recliner, while he (Hanson) said he slept in his SUV in the Walmart parking lot.
The officer said that Hanson told him that the storage unit was unlocked, but when he was asked if his mother could get up and leave the unit, Hanson replied that she was largely immobile and couldn’t get up and move on her own.
Hanson also reported that he took his mother to the hospital when he noticed the bruises on her buttocks. The officer asked him why he didn’t take her to the hospital when he’d noticed she was possibly having a stroke two days earlier. He claimed to have not been thinking clearly due to back pain.
Hanson was booked into the Christian County Jail on Wednesday, Oct.14. As of presstime, there was no court date scheduled for him.
