After 32 Years, My Mother Chose My Sister Over Me, Telling Me, ‘It’s Her Day.’…
The Drained Accounts
Her face changed immediately when she answered. Her phone was on speaker and she shouted,
“James.”
James Turner advised my mother financially for 20 years. His services included retirement account management, tax planning, and investment advice.
They had volunteered together years earlier, so Diane knew him. James sounded worried.
“I’d been trying to reach Emma for 2 weeks about some unusual account activity, but she wouldn’t answer my calls or emails.”
Large withdrawals and transfers were made to unfamiliar accounts. Everything had happened since she married David.
He was worried enough to contact family because something felt wrong. Diane requested that he meet with us to explain everything.
James agreed immediately and offered to visit Diane that afternoon. He arrived with a briefcase full of papers at 2:00.
He spread account statements and transaction records at Diane’s dining room table. I was sickened by the numbers.
The past five months, Emma withdrew over $37,000. It started with a few hundred, then $4,500, $7,500, and $10,500.
James cited a statement showing Emma and Samantha opened a joint account two weeks ago. He wasn’t informed and didn’t know about it until the transfer records.
Money was transferred from Emma’s retirement account to this joint account and then disappeared. James said he’d advised Emma since her 30s.
He knew her spending and financial goals. This behavior was uncharacteristic.
She always handled money carefully and consulted him before big purchases. Now she was draining accounts without telling him and ignoring his concerns.
He asked us if we knew because it looked like someone was systematically stealing from her financially. I showed James Samantha’s hospital records, victim statements, and the multi-family fraud pattern.
He reclined and shook his head. He had seen con artists drain older people’s accounts before.
Romance or investment scams were typical. He’d never seen it with a relative, but the pattern was the same.
Trust, urgency, isolate the victim from advisers, extract money, and disappear. Diane called Dylan to come over immediately.
Dylan arrived 30 minutes later and James showed him the financial records. Dylan said he could legally get bank records now that we had fraud evidence.
He made some calls at the table and subpoenaed Emma’s account and transaction histories by day’s end. The bank records arrived two days later.
Dylan spread them on Diane’s dining room table and we read them all. The pattern was worse than James said.
Emma’s funds were transferred to Samantha’s three accounts. James found a joint account; Samantha opened two personal accounts with Emma’s address.
Samantha transferred families like Dylan had found before. She started with small amounts to avoid suspicion, then increased them as she gained control.
Samantha convinced an elderly man to take out a second mortgage and send her the money. Everything was gone.
It was strange to be right and horrified. We were right about Samantha all along.
She stole from my mother and others. However, seeing the numbers and knowing how much damage she’d done made me vomit.
$37,000 gone. Samantha just received my mother’s 30-year-old retirement savings.
James came that night after Diane called. He meticulously took notes and asked about dates and amounts.
He said,
“We had enough evidence to sue to protect Emma’s assets. We could get a restraining order to freeze accounts and stop transfers.”
“We could ask the court to overturn the will change for undue influence. We may be able to charge fraud and theft.”
James said it would take time in court proceedings and humiliate my mother in public. Diane suggested trying another method first.
Confronting David
Bring everything to David privately to see if hard evidence will break Samantha’s hold on him. David’s honesty could help us stop Samantha without dragging my mother into a public legal battle.
It was risky, but we tried. We discovered David’s workplace, a supply company manager in an industrial town.
Diane and I drove there Tuesday during his lunch break. He emerged from the building after we waited in the parking lot.
I exited the car and called him. David paled at me.
He turned and walked toward the building. I ran after him and grabbed his arm.
I told him we had proof Samantha had stolen from multiple families and was stealing from Emma. David stopped walking in the parking lot.
He stared at the ground. Diane stopped us and suggested we talk privately in David’s car.
David walked to his car and unlocked it without speaking. We all entered.
David drives; I sit in the passenger seat, Diane in the back. I took out the folder with our collected items.
Previous victim statements, bank records showing transfers, hospital documentation proving Samantha had never been treated for a terminal illness, and her behavior timeline were shown. While reading each page, David’s hands shook.
Diane identified each person and explained Samantha’s actions. The fake pregnancy, cancer diagnosis, stolen money, and broken relationships were detailed.
David cried with his head in his hands. His body shook with deep sobs.
He felt trapped despite knowing something was wrong for weeks. Samantha threatened him.
She warned him that she would tell Emma that he had hit her, threatened her, and tried to control her if he didn’t support her story about being his daughter and terminally ill. David feared divorce and being accused of something he never did.
How to fight someone who lied so easily was beyond him. David’s next statement made everything worse.
He was approached by Samantha before meeting Emma. She found him and claimed to be his long-lost daughter from a brief relationship decades earlier.
She had plausible info about his past. She knew his residence and workplace.
She knew his dates and names. David wanted to believe her because he regretted never having kids.
For confirmation, he tested; paternity results were negative. Samantha wasn’t his biological daughter, but she’d already gained his trust.
She knew everything about him, met his friends, and lived in his apartment. David questioned her paternity test.
Samantha didn’t act surprised or upset. She smiled and said she never thought he was her father.
He seemed lonely and she needed a place to stay. Then she told him she found Emma online and thought she’d be a good target.
She threatened to ruin David’s reputation if he didn’t help her get close to Emma. She recorded private conversations.
She accessed his email and bank accounts. She implied he was dangerous and would be arrested.
David tried to leave her, but she followed. Samantha entered the relationship when he started dating Emma.
She convinced Emma she was David’s daughter and wanted to join their new family. Emma was with Samantha when David realized what was happening.
Samantha isolated Emma from me and other family members, leaving David helpless. He watched Emma change her will and withdraw money.
He knew it was wrong, but Samantha had warned him she would destroy him if he exposed her. I wanted to scream at David for allowing this, for watching my mother be manipulated and doing nothing while Samantha destroyed our family.
He was just another person Samantha had trapped. As I saw him crying in his car with shaking hands, Diane must have seen my face because she put her hand on my arm.
She whispered to David about what to do. She said the only solution was to tell Emma the truth together, everyone with all our evidence.
David wiped his face and nodded, but his voice was rough when he spoke. Samantha was getting worse, so we had to be careful.
She was acting strangely, more angry and less careful about hiding her true self as money ran out. David thought she was planning something big before she disappeared.
Maybe getting Emma to sign over the house or take out a huge loan. He heard Samantha on the phone twice this week discussing property values and equity loans.
