By Ed Pearce
RENO, Nev. (KOLO) -Two years ago, police were searching for an 80-year-old Alzheimer’s patient missing from a local care facility. Wednesday her son and a former law enforcement official were in Reno Justice Court facing charges for her abduction.
The story that unfolded in their preliminary hearing had its roots in a bitter battle over the guardianship of 80-year-old Susan Hillygus. Her son, Roger, had lost that battle in the courts to his sister and by August of 2019, she had made plans to sell her mother’s home to support her care.
By then she was living in a Reno memory care facility, ambulatory, but mostly uncommunicative. He had apparently not given up and even approached Reno Deputy Police Chief Oliver Miller with a strange request.
“He wanted to have myself, Chief Soto, Sheriff Darrin Balaam to go down there to affect some kind of civil arrest of the individuals who were holding his mother at that care facility,” Miller told the court.
Miller said he advised Hillygus the department had no role in what was strictly a civilian matter. He should hire an attorney and stay away from the care facility where he had already been accused of trespass.
Hillygus apparently found a more sympathetic ear in another law enforcement veteran, former Mineral County Sheriff and Reno-Sparks Indian Colony Police Chief Stewart Handte, who--Miller said-- made a similar call to the police department.
August 8th, Hillygus went to the care home, told staff he was there to visit another patient and took his mother. He later called to say he wouldn’t be returning her, but was taking her to California where authorities would have no power over them.
Days later, acting on a Secret Witness tip, police located them in an apartment in Bellflower, California. Hillygus was arrested on second degree kidnapping charges.
Handte admitted his role but explained he was sympathetic to Hillygus’ plight because of his own family’s history. His charge was later reduced to conspiracy, but he appeared with his friend at the hearing and may share the defense table with Hillygus, if this case moves on to trial in district court.
Sadly, Susan Hillygus died in October of 2019, a couple of months after her return.
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