Apopka caretaker stole from terminally ill woman, police say

By Hannah Phillips

An Apopka woman with a history of theft charges was arrested Tuesday for exploiting the terminally ill woman she was hired to care for, police said.

Melisa “Missy” Brooks, 50, is accused of stealing more than $3,900 worth of items from her elderly employer over the course of a month, according to Apopka police. At the time, Brooks was already awaiting trial on allegations that she stole from another elderly person in her care.

In the new case, Brooks was hired in November by the son of a woman police described as an “elderly dying patient.” The son wanted someone to help bathe and dress his mother.

But the son told police that things went missing from his mother’s dresser and cabinets soon after Brooks took the job — including a bag containing $300 worth of quarters, a gold chain and crucifix pendant, four gold rings, an Olive Garden gift card and bottles of liquor.

Brooks denied knowing about the missing items but was later identified in surveillance footage from a Bealls store using the mother’s credit card to make an unauthorized purchase of $623, police said. Brooks was jailed Tuesday on various theft and exploitation charges.

She pled not guilty to similar charges last year after being accused of exploiting and stealing between $300 and $10,000 from a person 65 or older in May 2019. Records detailing the allegations against Brooks were not publicly available Wednesday.

Brooks’ next court hearing is scheduled for Feb. 9 in that case, in which her bond was revoked by Orange County Judge Andrew A. Bain following her latest arrest. Apopka police in an affidavit urged that she be held in custody “to protect future elderly victims.”

A string of additional theft charges also precedes the most recent allegations against Brooks. In 2012, she was arrested for shoplifting about $90 worth of merchandise from a Seminole County Publix.

“I stole some razors and lunch meat,” she told police, according to the arrest report.

Brooks completed a “shoplifting and impulse control” program in lieu of judgement but was found guilty of stealing about $140 worth of merchandise from another Publix two years later, according to court documents.

She was later found guilty of stealing $287 worth of clothing from a Kohl’s in 2017, which she told officers she intended to return for gift cards. An Orange County judge also found Brooks guilty of a theft that took place in 2013.

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Apopka caretaker stole from terminally ill woman, police say