Malnutrition or something else?

Question
A couple of weeks ago, my brother and his girlfriend went on vacation and left me in charge of taking care of the dogs. I gladly did so, because I love animals, and I took care of them every day just as I was told. Well, when they came back, about a week passed, and I was then told that Thunder, my brother's 3 year old German shepherd, was really sick and they couldn't figure it out. So they took him to the vet, and the next morning the vet informed them that he had died. It took the vet another day to figure it out, but he told my brother that the dog was malnutritioned. Now I am under the microscope because they claim I must not have fed the dogs and they are blaming me for Thunder's death! I DID feed the dogs, every day, and as I got to thinking, it seems like some of his symptoms were a little weird. He had lost weight, yes, and the vet said he had whipworms and hookworms. He had a high fever of 108, he was drooling excessively, and there was a listless, almost glazed look in his eyes. I was wondering if you had an opinion, I know you are not a vet, but if anyone has any ideas, it would be really appreciated. Any response you give is highly appreciated, and I thank you for taking the time to read this. I am desperate to prove to my brother that this is not my fault.

Answer
A healthy dog is not going to die if it was not fed for one week, although it will certainly lose a lot of weight. Malnutrition is something that develops over many, many week/months from neglect, bad food/poor diet, or some underlying illness.

The fact that the shepherd was infested with whipworms and hookworms tells me that his owners' were the ones that were negligent as those worms are extremely dehabilitating, causing obstructions, chronic diarrhea, anemia, and weight loss. This just sets the dog up for any opportunistic virus/bacteria that comes along as the dog will have little resistance. This is most likely the cause for the high fever, but further tests would have to be run to determine that.

Whipworm and hookworm eggs are extremely hard to remove from the environment, and the other dogs will most likely be infested also. They will need to be wormed every three months or so as they will continue to become infected from eggs deposited where the dogs have eliminated. People can also become infected with hookworms if they walk barefooted in those same areas.