Tangled Tangled Web

Back to the "cat lady" aka "E".

I think I said that she recently passed away after a fall and a stroke and a brief stint in hospice care. During that time I finally met, face to face, her family from out east and they were very nice. It became very clear to me that they truly could not conceive of all that I had told them about her living environment until they actually experienced it and that, now, they finally understood.

The icky part is this. For a week or so before E had gone into the hospital I had been feeling guilty about not checking in on her regularly. I kept thinking, if something happens to her and she falls and can't get up nobody will be there to check on her or help her. Worse, I thought about all of those feral cats in her house...what if she died...what if those cats.... EEEW!!

But there always seemed to be some reason why I couldn't go. I wasn't feeling well, I had to drive the kids somewhere, homework, family, laundry, LIFE! Always some reason.

And then I get the call that it had happened. She had fallen. BUT someone checked on her and called 9-1-1 and had her taken to the hospital. This is where the web comes in - the mystery.

This "someone" named Theresa had left a note on the door for E saying that she'd locked up and had the keys. The odd thing is that NOBODY had a clue who Theresa was. She did leave some contact info on the note though and they called her to try to get the keys.

The family immediately called the Humane Society Officer to have her come and clear out the feral cats. The Officer tried to reach Theresa with no response. So she thought she'd have to have the local police accompany her so she could break in and get the cats. She happened to drive by the house and see a car there so she stopped. It was Theresa in the house bagging up (garbage?). Theresa said she and her son were coming later to clear out the house and put the furniture by the curb.

Mind you E is in the hospital and is not deceased and it's been maybe two or three days since she was taken to hospital. So this woman is clearing out her house???

So the Humane Officer says she cannot do that, she has no legal right, E's family is on their way out here, and to please leave the keys so that they can be turned over to the police dept. Theresa claims she didn't know E had any family and boogies out of there taking the keys with her.

Either the police or neighbors eventually say that they'd seen this car there almost constantly for three weeks leading up to Elinors hospitalization.

A day after the Humane Officer runs into Theresa, the house gets broken into and ransacked. Only the family says that it seemed staged - that whoever got in must have had a key but made it look like a break in. E's purse is gone and actually she has quite a bit of money and credit cards. At that point we all think of Theresa. But by this time Theresa is not responding to any calls or messages. Worse - the police won't look into it!

This is where the sick feeling comes in. Theresa is from another county quite a distance away - there's no way that she could just happen across E and decide to help her like I did. There's also no way that - if she'd spent so much time with her in three weeks - she wouldn't know that E had family. E always talked about her family and her life. ALWAYS. Plus she had pics around and cards, etc. Theresa also made no attempt to link with local services or authorities - I know because I keep in touch with them about E on a regular basis and either I would have heard or Theresa would have been led to me. So I wonder if she targeted her.

So after this has all come down I start to think the worst. What if all this time that I was worrying about going to check on her, but didn't, this Theresa person was taking advantage of her?!?!?! What if Theresa caused the injury? What if Theresa was robbing her and using her money all that time. How long had E been laying there injured? What if Theresa just left her there for days so she could access her money and credit and then called the hospital when she knew it was too late?

Once the family arrived they could find out nothing from the credit or banking firms because the proper legal procedures had not yet been processed as part of dealing with the will and executorship. So, for all anyone knows all of her money is gone???

God what an awful feeling. I can't get it out of my head. The thought of E laying there for days....or longer, while some possible psycho comes in and out of her house leaving her there and taking advantage of her - stealing from her.

I know - it's a worse case scenario. But it's really messing with my head.

So after all this has passed and I learn more and more.