Nursing home workers charged with stealing residents’ medications

(Iowa Capital Dispatch) Two Iowa nursing home workers are facing disciplinary charges for allegedly stealing the medications of residents at two separate facilities.

Court records indicate Amanda Renee Stroh, 44, of Parkersburg, was criminally charged last fall with felony prohibited acts involving controlled substances and with misdemeanor tampering with records.

Prosecutors allege that in May 2025, while working at Aplington’s Maple Manor nursing home in Butler County, Stroh stole residents’ oxycodone and hydrocodone and then falsified records to suggest the drugs had been properly administered.

According to prosecutors, Stroh was captured on video taking medications from the supply of at least four different residents and then “walking off” with the drugs.

State inspection records indicate one of Stroh’s colleagues at Maple Manor told investigators that shortly after some of the drugs were allegedly stolen, she noticed Stroh’s balance “was all off and she fell over when she was trying to tie her shoe.”  Stroh later stumbled into a wall, and then almost fell over while standing at the nurses’ station, the coworker allegedly reported.

The administrator of the home allegedly told state inspectors he showed Stroh the video of her taking pills from the medication supply. The administrator allegedly reported that Stroh’s “eyes got kind of big” as she viewed the videos, and that she then said she didn’t know why she would have taken the drugs.

After Stroh pleaded guilty to one of the felony charges, she received a deferred judgment on the remaining felony charge and on the tampering with records charge. She was sentenced to two years of probation.

The Iowa Board of Nursing reported this week that it has charged Stroh with misappropriating medications or supplies, and with failing to properly document or perform the disposal of unused medication.

A hearing on the disciplinary charges is scheduled for Aug. 11, 2026. The charges against Stroh were approved by the board in December 2025, but were made public only this week.

Missouri Valley nurse charged

In an unrelated Iowa Board of Nursing case, Hayley Christine Lee, 36, of Sioux City, is facing disciplinary charges of misappropriating or attempting to misappropriate medications or supplies, engaging in behavior that is contradictory to professional decorum, failing to properly safeguard or secure medications, and failing to respond to a board investigation or comply with a board subpoena.

As is customary with all of Iowa’s licensing boards, the Board of Nursing has not publicly disclosed any of the alleged actions that gave rise to the charges.

A hearing on the matter is scheduled for Aug. 7, 2026. The disciplinary charges were approved in December 2025 but were not made public until this week.

While the board records give no indication as to what led to the charges, Lee is named in a November 2025 Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing report on medication theft at the Azria Health Longview nursing home in Missouri Valley.

In that case, it was alleged that the facility had failed to protect residents from exploitation resulting from the misappropriation of oxycodone tablets. The report names Lee as one of the nurses involved in caring for the residents whose medications were believed to be stolen.

The worker suspected of the theft is identified in the reports only as “Staff A,” a licensed practical nurse who was suspended, refused to undergo a chemical screening, and then resigned.