Denver Gazette senior investigative reporter Jenny Deam has been honored by the prestigious National Headliner Awards for her reporting on Colorado’s troubled oversight of the assisted living industry and other elder care issues.

Deam was awarded third place in online beat reporting for her series “The Unwatched.” Also honored for his work in the series was Evan Wyloge, a former investigative reporter for The Denver Gazette, who did the data analysis. He is now a data journalist for Realtor.com.

The annual national awards were announced on Monday.

In their work, Deam and Wyloge revealed that the nation’s $96 billion assisted-living industry, which lacks federal oversight, has flooded Colorado with substandard care. The journalists did an analysis of 4,500 incident reports culled over nearly a five-year period.

Their reporting revealed the maximum fine allowed under state law was $2,000 per year per assisted-living facility, even as state regulators had classified as “unexplained or suspicious” 110 deaths in assisted-living facilities over nearly five years.

'Unexplained or suspicious' deaths pile up among residents of Colorado's growing assisted-living industry

“Jenny was the first reporter in the country to raise alarms about poor care by this unregulated industry,” said Vince Bzdek, executive editor of the Gazette newspapers. “And Colorado, inspired by Jenny’s work, finalized a rule change that will increase possible fines to as much as $10,000 or more per incident.”

Deam’s reporting found at least five other assisted-living residents had died in Colorado during the nearly five-year time frame after wandering outside of assisted living facilities into brutal, inclement weather conditions.

They were told their mother's death was peaceful. It was all a lie. Questions persist about Colorado's oversight of assisted living industry

Among those who died: Hazel Place. Her nurse told her family she died a peaceful death. In reality, Place died frightened, immobile and unattended after she wandered onto the courtyard at the assisted-living facility her family had reluctantly turned to for care of a woman ravaged by Alzheimer’s disease.

They were told their mother's death was peaceful. It was all a lie. Questions persist about Colorado's oversight of assisted living industry

Established in 1934 by the Press Club of Atlantic City, the National Headliner Awards program is one of the oldest and largest annual contests recognizing journalistic merit. The first National Headliner Awards were presented in 1935.