The two Eastern European women in their 70s attracted little attention. Dependable members of their immigrant community, they helped their neighbours, played an active role in the local Hungarian church, and were always ready to lend a hand to the homeless. One had been in the estate agency business, while the other once ran a coffee shop.
Last week Los Angeles police arrested the pair amid suspicions that they have collected millions of dollars in life insurance after befriending and murdering several homeless men. ”Our first thought was … they would leave the actual dirty work to someone else,” an LAPD detective, Dennis Kilcoyne, told the Los Angeles Times. ”We’re not so sure about this anymore … This is pretty evil.”
Police arrested the women, Olga Rutterschmidt (73) and Helen Golay (75) after becoming concerned about the safety of several men. During a surveillance operation, officers observed Rutterschmidt giving an elderly man several documents to sign before driving him to a bank.
Investigators allege that the women befriended Kenneth McDavid (50) and Paul Vados (73) and provided them with apartments and paid for their living expenses in return for the men taking out life insurance policies and naming the women as beneficiaries.
The women then had rubber stamps made to duplicate the men’s signatures. According to prosecutors, they amassed 19 life insurance policies on the two men. Vados was found dead in a Hollywood alley in November 1999, apparently the victim of a hit-and-run accident. The two women collected around $90 000 in life insurance when he died. The following year, they met McDavid, according to police, eventually securing more than a dozen life insurance policies in his name. McDavid was found dead in an alley in Beverly Hills, also the apparent victim of a hit-and-run accident, and the two women eventually received $2,2-million in life insurance claims.
But investigators say Golay had requested a towtruck for her damaged car almost a kilometre away from where McDavid was killed. She made the call an hour before his body was found.
The pair were charged with fraud on Thursday, but investigators say several other men may have been victims of the scam, and they are scouring the records of other hit-and-run cases. They say they have evidence that the women had bought rubber stamps bearing the signatures of eight other men. The two women would allegedly purport to be relatives or carers.
In a statement to investigators working on behalf of Vados’s insurers, Golay said he would ”give me money and ask me to pay the premiums. I believe he took out insurance for Olga and I to show his appreciation and let us know he cared.” – Guardian Unlimited Â