Couple held in elder abuse

When Missouri resident Garneth Sylvia, 92, was befriended by a woman in Southern California, she entered an association that would eventually leave her penniless and living in a mobile home. District attorney's investigators and San Bernardino County sheriff's deputies arrested Charlene and Mark Humphrey of Twentynine Palms on Oct. 5 on suspicion of elder abuse and grand theft against Sylvia over the past two years. Charlene Humphrey contacted Sylvia in early 2004 to buy the house that had belonged to Sylvia's recently deceased sister. "Then 19 days later the suspect calls the victim back and says, `I know you want to move to California and I found (a house on) Morongo Road,"' said Senior Investigator Maurice Landrum of the district attorney's Real Estate Fraud Unit. Sylvia purchased the home in Twentynine Palms for $50,000, and Charlene Humphrey told her she would place her own name on the paperwork to make the long-distance purchase easier.

Read More