Violet Evelyn Alberts: California woman arrested in connection with reverse mortgage fraud and murder-for-hire plot

CNN
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Detectives investigating the death of a 96-year-old California woman nearly two years ago have discovered that she was the victim of an elaborate murder and reverse mortgage scam for control of her home. authorities announced Thursday. Four people have now been arrested in this case.

Violet Evelyn Alberts was found dead in her bed in her Montecito home on May 27, 2022, by a caregiver who had broken a window in her home. A subsequent autopsy determined she died of asphyxiation and the manner of death was determined to be a homicide, Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said.

Brown said at a news conference Thursday that the case is shrouded in mystery because investigators have pieced together “a complex and sinister web of financial exploitation of the victims.”

Brown said the plan came about after Pauline Macarreno, 48, approached his widow, who was in “difficult financial circumstances,” and offered to sell her valuable home with a reverse mortgage. It is said that it has begun.

However, Macarreno ultimately attempted to gain illegal control over Alberts’ assets by conducting a series of transactions, including forging documents and establishing a fraudulent entity, the sheriff’s office said. Mr. Macareno was the “central figure in Mr. Alberts’ manipulation and deceptive targeting,” Mr. Brown said.

Investigators later found evidence that Alberts was the target of a murder-for-hire plot, the sheriff said.

“In the eyes of Pauline Macarreno, Ms. Alberts lived too long,” Brown said, adding that “perhaps the acceleration of her death was behind the murder.”

Just three days before Alberts’ body was discovered, two people, Ricardo Martin Delcampo, 41, and Henry Rostomian, 33, went to Alberts’ home on a “reconnaissance trip,” according to the sheriff’s office. I was out.

“This vital discovery highlights the premeditated nature of the crime and highlights the perpetrator’s calculated efforts to search Mr. Alberts’ home and plan his vicious and reprehensible actions.” he said.

Rostomian was arrested last month and Martin Delcampo was arrested on March 5 and is currently being held without bail in the Santa Barbara County Jail on charges of murder and conspiracy to kill Alberts, according to the sheriff’s office. A third man, Harry Basmajian, 58, was arrested in January on suspicion of involvement in the conspiracy and was already being held in federal custody in Los Angeles on unrelated charges, according to a sheriff’s news release.

Macarreno was arrested in 2022 and later sentenced to six years in state prison for fraud related to Alberts’ case, the sheriff’s office said. She also currently faces additional charges pending against her, Brown said. without elaborating on the charges.

CNN has not been able to confirm whether any of the suspects have legal representatives. CNN has reached out to the Santa Barbara County Public Defender’s Office.

Brown said investigators were able to locate the suspect through identification of the suspect’s vehicle, examination of surveillance footage and forensic analysis of the crime scene. Authorities announced Thursday that the investigation is continuing.

Brown said Alberts was a valued member of the Montecito community and was known for her active, warm demeanor and sociability.

“Her love for her home, which included a pond filled with her prized koi fish brought from Beverly Hills, reflected her appreciation for life’s small pleasures,” the sheriff said.

Before her death, Alberts had planned to celebrate her upcoming birthday by baking fresh cookies. “These cookie ingredients were found on a table on May 27, 2022, when the Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Office responded to a distress call for the welfare of Violet Alberts,” Brown said. said.

Macarreno “essentially took advantage of the victim,” Brown said, calling it a “particularly heinous incident.”

“The victim was in a difficult financial situation, her savings were almost depleted, she was basically living in a very valuable home and she ran out of money,” Brown said.

In 2022, adults 60 and older reported 88,262 complaints to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, resulting in total losses of $3.1 billion, an 84% increase in losses compared to 2021. California has the highest number of senior citizen fraud victims in the nation. According to FBI Los Angeles, losses of $624.5 million were reported in 2022.

“This case is certainly an extreme example,” Brown said. “However, unfortunately, all too often elderly victims are exploited by others in a variety of financial ways.”