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PAGE 34 SPOtLIGHtS MONTANA SENIOR NEWS • FEBRUARY / MARCH 2020
Elderly Fraud: When Fiction Becomes Reality
SUSPICIOUS tRANSACtIONS
BY DEBBIE BURKE Ruth suffered a catastrophic stroke.
Ellie and I rushed to San Diego. While
I write crime fiction. My novel Ruth was hospitalized, we discovered
Stalking Midas features a ruthless con suspicious credit card charges and unau-
artist who charms seniors out of their thorized electronic fund transfers (EFTs)
life savings. from her bank accounts.
When $20,000 was stolen from Ellie confronted Jessica, who broke down
my adopted mother, Ruth, the crime and admitted she’d been using Ruth’s credit
became personal. cards. She sent text messages of apology
At 90, Ruth’s health was declining, but and promised to pay back the stolen funds.
her proud, independent spirit remained But, with each passing day, evidence of
as strong as ever. She was determined to additional theft came to light, totaling more
stay in her San Diego home of 40-plus than $20,000.
years. Even though her daughter Ellie UNDOING tHE DAMAGE
and I talked regularly with her by phone, We notified the various suppliers. A
we both lived long distances away and local San Diego bank immediately closed
couldn’t see to her daily needs. After Ruth’s account and sent the case to their
several close calls, Ruth finally consented fraud department. Discover froze Ruth’s
to a home health aide. account and provided photocopies for the
“Jessica” had cared for Ruth’s older past year, showing thousands of dollars in
sibling for several years, and her children bogus charges.
vouched for her. Jessica could supervise But we ran into trouble with a Big-Name
medications, do chores, and drive Ruth to National Bank that handled Ruth’s VISA.
visit her sister. Ellie and I believed we’d An officer refused to freeze the account or
found the perfect solution. provide copies of suspicious charges, even
though Ellie had Ruth’s power of attorney.
A World-Class Cowboy
MAX SALISBURY (1948-2019)
He first encouraged removal of the
BY MIKE CUFFE grizzly bear from the federal Endangered
Species List as proposed by Lincoln
Life can bring many strange twists and County Sen. Mike Cuffe, sponsor of SJR 6.
turns. Max Salisbury, horse trainer extraor- As that hearing ended, Salisbury took the
dinaire and mountain range rider, was an podium again to propose more aggres-
unlikely guy to testify before a Montana sive management of the wolf in a second
Senate committee. But appear he did on committee hearing.
Feb. 15, 2019, before Senate Fish and Game He also invited Sen. Mike Phillips to
Committee chaired by Sen. Jennifer Fielder. come ride the ridges and swampy creek
He spoke confidently on a resolution to bottoms in the upper Wolf Creek area,
seek removal of the grizzly bear from the which is centrally located between Libby,
federal endangered species listing. Eureka, and Kalispell. Sen. Phillips is one
He addressed the committee not only on of the premier wolf experts in Montana
one bill, but two. Wearing the champion belt and sponsor of a bill to give wolves more
buckle won in national reining competition protection near Yellowstone National Park.
a few decades ago, he spoke with the savvy “I would like to ride with that cowboy,”
from years of keeping mountain range cattle Phillips grinned later. “Don’t take me for a
separate from wolves and grizzlies. tenderfoot. I have been around.”
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Big-Name Bank’s policy: their legal depart-
ment had to review the POA before any
action could be taken. Review required 10
business days.
That left the account wide open to more
fraud. We destroyed the card and prayed
Jessica didn’t have a duplicate.
We also filed a report with the San Diego
Police Department. Detectives assured us
there was more than enough evidence to
recommend prosecution.
Two weeks after the stroke, Ruth passed
away just before her 91st birthday.
At the funeral, we talked with rela-
tives of Ruth’s sister, who’d died a few
months earlier, and learned jewelry and
money mysteriously disappeared during
Jessica’s caregiving.
Meanwhile, Jessica apparently fled
to Arizona.
The biggest shock hit when detectives
told us the case against Jessica was dropped,
because Ruth couldn’t testify.
We learned that if a victim of elder fraud
dies, the case is closed. Ellie checked with
CONtINUED ON PAGE 49
From chasing cows and playing hockey
as a youth in southern British Columbia
to playing as Eureka’s star running back
in the 1968 Montana East West Shrine
Football Classic to nightly hand-to-hand
combat in bars as an Army MP in Okinawa
to helping keep the peace in Flathead
County as a deputy sheriff and detective,
Salisbury took a winding and adventur-
ous route through life. He still holds the
Eureka Lions single season school rushing
record with 1,610 yards.
Eventually love of training horses led
him to high-end jobs at breeding ranches
in Arizona and California. He later moved
north to manage programs in Washington
and Montana, including horse and rider
training and trail riding at he upscale
Paws Up ranch near Clear Water Junction,
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