Posted on 09/26/2012 5:04:02 AM PDT by TurboZamboni
Three Portage County residents are accused of cashing Social Security checks of a relative who has been missing for 30 years and is presumed dead, and authorities are investigating to see whether her remains are buried on her wooded property.
If Marie Jost is still alive she'd be 100 years old. But authorities now suspect she died in about 1982, and they're accusing her son, daughter and son-in-law of continuing to cash her government checks in her absence.
Investigators believe Jost might be buried on her Amherst property. Sheriff's Capt. Dale O'Kray said Tuesday that cadaver dogs have hit upon the scent of human remains, and authorities are using heavy machinery to explore the property and dig for evidence.
"There's no indication she's been seen in the last 25 years and we have to have a starting point for where she might be," O'Kray said.
(Excerpt) Read more at twincities.com ...
No it wouldn't. For the last decade of my mom's life, I handled all her bill paying. I signed her checks. I had the debit card and the PIN and withdrew cash for her.
One thing that might work is to send each SS recipient a notice by registered mail, wherein the recipient must sign for it and show ID to the postman before getting it. If undeliverable, the SS checks are suspended until it's sorted out.
The guy is smiling while being booked. Its got to be the most fun he’s had in 25 years.
You would also think death records w/b cross referenced.”
You would think so - but what if no one reports the death to the proper agencies?
Having worked with data files for longer than I want to think about, there are probably already so many patches and updates to information in the SS system that it has lost all its credibility. Really needs to be scraped and set up with safeguards to ensure that the information as entered and when revised is correct.
Re payment of bills and handling financial affairs for an elderly or disabled person, I do have some clients that I do that for and have done that for relatives. But I always had a court issued document authorizing me to serve as administrator and the checking account includes that designation. That way all parties have some protection.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.