Thursday, January 22, 2015

Did Plymouth man take his dead mom into bank to make cash withdrawal?


http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/clip/11053674/did-man-take-mom-to-bank-when-she-was-already-dead


PLYMOUTH, Minn. (KMSP) - County social workers have investigated David Vanzo for elderly neglect and financial exploitation of his mother, and now, so are Plymouth police.

Detectives wonder if he brought his mother to the bank to make a withdrawal -- after she was already dead.

Vanzo denies the allegation.

"My mother and I had an agreement," he tells Fox 9. "I took care of my mom for years, I'm the good guy here, not the bad guy."

Caryl Vanzo died two weeks ago, just days before she turned 91.

But when Plymouth police arrived at the home, they were overwhelmed by the stench of urine and feces. They found the woman in bed, wearing a robe and fur coat, her boots covered in feces.

Police arrested David for elderly neglect.

"My mother, she wouldn't eat in the end," David says.

David did, however, take his mother to the bank that day. They rode there together in a taxi, seven hours before he reported her dead.

He took out $850 in her name. But bank employees said Caryl's feet were dragging under her wheelchair. A search warrant citing those employees says she "did not move" and employees "couldn't tell if she was breathing."

A neighbor who saw them leave in the taxi also wonders if she was dead.

"I don't know if she was unconscious, or not alive," the neighbor says.

The Plymouth police chief says Hennepin County Adult Protection Services made an in-home visit in 2012. But authorities found Caryl lucid and able-bodied, and she told them she wanted to stay with her son. The question is if the situation deteriorated between then and two weeks ago.

"If it was such a big deal why didn't they take her out of here?" David says.

But authorities investigated David for financial exploitation on at least two occasions. There was a reverse mortgage his mother couldn't explain to the tune of $118,000, cash withdrawals of $47,500, and another for $25,600.

David says the money came from a joint bank account, and that everything he did, he did for his mother.

"I love my mother very much," he says. "I gave my life to keep my mother alive. Look at my eyes."

Last year, there were 9,853 calls in Hennepin County reporting vulnerable adult maltreatment, and 4,409 of those cases involved non-licensed facilities, such as home care.

Those calls led to about 714 active field investigations.

Full Article, Video & Source:
Did Plymouth man take his dead mom into bank to make cash withdrawal?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The idea of him taking his dead mom to the bank is too much for me to think about.

But, the detectives are "wondering" so they're planting that seed in everyone's mind. It had better be true or shame on them for saying it publically.

StandUp said...

Oh my say it isn't so.