Blotter: Investigator: Caretakers took care of themselves
Pair hired to help out 96-year-old allegedly drain majority of funds
Donna Fielder
February 26, 2010
Denton Record-Chronicle
http://www.dentonrc.com/sharedcontent/dws/drc/localnews/stories/DRC_blotter_0227.15945a362.html
A probate court investigator told Denton police Thursday that two caretakers had taken as much as two-thirds of a million dollars from a 96-year-old woman.

Police learned that the victim and her husband had hired one of the women in 1993 to care for him. He died in 1994, according to the report, but his wife hired the woman to stay on to care for her. At some point, the victim apparently recruited a second caretaker to help her.

Witnesses recently reported that the caretakers seemed to be spending more money than they could account for. The probate court assigned a lawyer and a guardian for the woman and assigned the investigator to look into the case.

The investigator told police that he learned that one of the caretakers paid the woman’s credit card bills and had access to the card. The bills showed she spent an average of more than $700 a month on groceries, according to the report, but the victim’s pantries contained little food. The credit card records showed an average of more than $200 in fast-food payments, yet the victim never went out of her house.

The caretaker has been paying herself a salary of about $60,000 a year, the investigator said.

According to the police report, investments of more than $1 million in 1994 had been “spent down” to $230,000 by moving funds to an account that the caretaker could access.

A police investigation is continuing.