Cars slowed and drivers looked long and hard at Gloria Helfrich’s house Thursday as they drove by. Some shook their heads. The unanswered question for these neighbors may be, “Why do bad things happen to good people?”

It’s hard to conceive that a person who reportedly looked out for everyone came to such a violent end.

Helfrich, a 67-year-old Lake Wales resident and employee at Winter Haven Hospital, met a violent death Monday night, allegedly killed by the grandson she took in about two years ago.

Helfrich worked in a hospital, in a caregiving environment. And she took in family. Her son Dustin Smiddie lived with her, as did her grandson, Dustin’s nephew, Jasper. According to neighbor Jan Whitehead, Helfrich’s invalid sister lived with the family for a number of years as well.

Whitehead said that Helfrich was a person who “kept to herself.”

“I’ve lived here for eight years and have probably not talked with her more than twice,” she said.

Whitehead said Dustin was friendly and always smiled and waved when he drove by on his way to work.

Helfrich’s neighbor to the left, Linda Martin, was apparently a little better acquainted with her, and said she and her husband sometimes helped Helfrich with her yard work, since she had a bad back.

“She was a very, very nice lady; always cordial,” Martin said.

Helfrich returned the Martins’ kindness by helping as much as she could after Martin’s husband suffered a stroke last year, she said.

Tuesday morning, Dustin Smiddie was still in the neighborhood in the immediate aftermath of the crime, but “was in shock” according to Martin, and declined to speak to the media. Martin and her husband took him in. “He was just sitting outside, wrapped in a blanket.”

It seems from all accounts that Helfrich was busy with work and family, a dutiful and caregiving person.

Her grandson, Jasper Smiddie, was arrested Wednesday in Highlands County and has been booked into the Polk County Jail. At a press conference Wednesday, Sheriff Grady Judd said that there were many unanswered questions — more now than before they interviewed the grandson.

Helfrich was employed as a senior health unit coordinator at Winter Haven Hospital, a position that used to be known as ward clerk. Employees at the hospital must refer all media to their community relations liaison, who is away until Monday, and the hospital’s CNO, Mary Jo Schreiber, advised she could not give permission for interviews with Helfrich’s coworkers because she was not authorized to do so, but would contact the hospital’s chief executive officer, Lance Anastasio. As of press time Friday, the CEO had not yet given permission for interviews to be conducted.