2 more arrests in 'sweetheart scams' probe

Ruby Miller followed a man home to return a dollar he dropped at a store, then went on to steal nearly $150,000 from his savings, sell his home, pocket $260,000 in proceeds and leave the 90-year-old in a care home, police say.

Sacramento police arrested Miller and her husband Thursday and say the case is the third in a series of "sweetheart scams" perpetrated by a related group of three psychic advisers and a bounty hunter.

The losses to the three elderly men total more than $500,000, and police say the women lied to befriend and defraud the men of Louis Vuitton purses, cash and a teacup Yorkshire terrier.

"Everything that was said to these victims was a lie," said Detective Mike Wood. "Whatever it takes to tell this person to win their confidence – they did it."

Detective Sheila Bergquist said the suspects came to investigators' attention in November when one man's daughter reported that a woman had moved into his home and started spending his money.

Detectives learned that Linda Navarro, 54, had encountered a 90-year-old man in a grocery store and asked: "Didn't I clean your house before?"

Navarro befriended the man and elicited his pity, saying she was caring for an elderly mother and four of her brother's children, police said.

She went out to dinner with him in San Francisco. He took her and her "daughter" on shopping sprees to Neiman Marcus and Louis Vuitton, police said.

"He thought he'd gotten himself a girlfriend," Wood said.

Bergquist said the man had spent about $25,000 on Navarro when officers gathered enough information to make an arrest.

They found Navarro and her niece at a veterinarian's office, where the women sought a checkup for their teacup Yorkshire terrier, Kipper, which had been purchased by the alleged victim.

Navarro and her niece, Monique Marks, were each charged in December with three counts of embezzlement by a caretaker.

Bergquist said the next lead came after the first case was publicized. A woman called detectives, saying Navarro had been dating her grandfather for eight years.

Bergquist went to an elder care home in south Sacramento to interview him.

He told her that he met Navarro in a graveyard, where the two commiserated over the death of a spouse.

"He took her to dinner, and when the money was gone – that's when she left," Bergquist said.

Bergquist said Navarro defrauded that man of $75,000.

In the course of interviewing that victim, Bergquist found out that another man in the home had a "relationship" with Navarro's sister-in-law, Ruby Miller, 38.

Miller met another 90-year-old man in 2002 after she followed him home, claiming he had dropped a dollar, police said. Soon, she and her daughter – who she claimed had been conceived during a rape – moved into his house.

Even though Miller claimed she had never been married, she was the legal spouse of Nicky Marks, 46, a bounty hunter, police said. Nicky Marks is Navarro's brother, police said.

Miller took power of attorney over the alleged victim's finances and liquidated nearly $150,000 in certificates of deposit, police said. She put $51,000 from the equity in his house – which had been paid off years before – into her husband's bank account, police said.

Then, last November, Miller used forged documents and sold the midtown home for $210,000, Bergquist said.

"She was telling him he had large amounts of money, and he didn't," Wood said.

Detectives got warrants to arrest Miller and her husband in January. Detectives arrested the couple about 2 p.m. Thursday in Reno without incident, Bergquist said.

Both were charged with grand theft, fraudulently obtaining funds and forgery.

Bergquist said the cases underscore the importance of frequently talking to older relatives. She said they are more susceptible to scam artists when they are lonely and disinclined to admit they've been snookered.

"(Scam artists) clean elderly people out to the point where they're embarrassed and don't want to tell their family," she said. "They're depressed because the money they worked all their lives for is gone."

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