Better late than never, Globe to write about Dupont, Lamar Guest House

If memory serves me correctly, when Cait Purinton was writing her award-winning series on the problems at the Lamar Guest House and other facilities owned by Robert Dupont, whose Anderson Guest House burned recently, killing 10 people, the Joplin Globe was nowhere to be found.

Of course, there is always the possibility that the Globe didn't read The Carthage Press at that time, possible but that wasn't the way it was. The Globe did not jump on the story, nor did the Springfield News-Leader or any other state newspaper, even though Dupont had Guest Houses in Springfield, St. Louis, and Butler. Perhaps if enough pressure had been put on the Division of Aging at that time, Robert Dupont may have been run out of the business.

Had that happened, the federal government would not have been bilked out of thousands of dollars during the Medicaid/Medicare fraud scheme that ended up costing Dupont a felony conviction

Perhaps the Anderson facility might have been owned by someone with a better record for safety and no one would be writing about the deaths of 10 people.

Still, better late than never. The Globe will run an article in its Wednesday edition concerning Dupont's operation of the Lamar Guest House, as well as his facility in Carthage. I do remember that one time Dupont owned the Drake in Carthage. He later ran a Carthage Guest House. I remember the Drake information being printed in The Press, though I no longer have a copy of it. I do not recall if the Carthage Guest House was in operation when I was at The Press. If it was, then shame on me for not pursuing the investigation.