A nursing home supervisor told other workers that the home's administrator had directed them to clean the body of resident Mabel Taylor and tell her family she'd died in her sleep, a licensed practical nurse testified yesterday.

Licensed practical nurse Cynthia Osborn said that she and other workers moved Mrs. Taylor's body inside and used a sheet to drag the body back to Mrs. Taylor's room after finding her lifeless in an outdoor courtyard.

"I tried to wake her and shake her. She was gone," said Ms. Osborn, who worked at the former Ronald Reagan Atrium I Nursing, Research and Rehabilitation Center in Robinson. "I went screaming down the hall [for help.]''

After workers lifted Mrs. Taylor's body into bed, nursing supervisor Kathryn Galati left the room to telephone Atrium administrator Martha F. Bell, Ms. Osborn testified. Ms. Galati returned and told workers that Mrs. Bell had said to wipe off Mrs. Taylor's body and "we'd take care of it in the morning.

"We were going to tell the family she'd died in her sleep," Ms. Osborn said, adding that Ms. Galati said an incident report was not to be written. Ms. Osborn said she should have written nursing notes about Mrs. Taylor's death, but Ms. Galati said she would handle it and allowed her to go home early because she was upset.

Ms. Osborn's testimony came in the trial of Ms. Bell, 60, of West Mifflin, and Atrium's parent corporation, the Alzheimer's Disease Alliance of Western Pennsylvania, in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court.

Both are charged with neglect of a care-dependent person, involuntary manslaughter and reckless endangerment in the death of Mrs. Taylor, 88, who was trapped overnight in the locked courtyard at Atrium. Mrs. Bell also is charged with conspiring to cover up the circumstances of Mrs. Taylor's death and theft of payroll funds.

Mrs. Bell's attorney, John Elash, repeatedly questioned Ms. Osborn about her supervision of Mrs. Taylor's unit of 29 residents, many of whom had Alzheimer's or dementia, before Mrs. Taylor's body was found.

Ms. Osborn, who was working alone on the 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift, conceded that she "glanced'' into residents' rooms but never actually saw Mrs. Taylor. She also acknowledged that she did not perform a thorough check of all residents and alarms that, when activated, rang when exterior doors were opened.

She said she did not have time for more thorough checks because other workers had called off and she was also trying to complete required monthly reports. She said she "took it for granted'' that alarms had been activated because Ms. Galati worked on her unit on the previous shift and had reported no problems.

Ms. Osborn said she didn't ask Ms. Galati for more help because other units had no workers to spare.

"I was there by myself, responsible for all those patients," she said. "I did the best I could."