Caretaker steals $13,000 engagement ring from elderly woman dying of coronavirus

A heartless eldercare worker swiped an 86-year-old Denver woman’s engagement ring and credit cards in the days before she died of the coronavirus, local prosecutors said.

Elizabeth Daniels, 29, allegedly pocketed Barbara Gust’s $13,000 diamond ring and brought it to a pawn shop as the octogenarian suffered from the illness at The Carillon at Belleview Station retirement community, according to the Denver District Attorney’s Office and KMGH-TV.

Daniels is also accused of making purchases with Gust’s card on April 15, the day the elderly woman died, prosecutors said.

“We were unable to have any access to her for four weeks, and then we found out she had the virus, which is just heartbreaking,” Gust’s daughter-in-law told KDVR. “[Daniels] should not have had access to vulnerable people at a time of crisis like this, where her own family couldn’t reach her, but a thief could.”

It wasn’t until the family started making arrangements with the funeral home that they realized what had happened — and reported it to the Denver Police Department, according to prosecutors.

Detectives secured an arrest affidavit for Daniels that same day.

Police recovered Gust’s engagement ring from a pawn shop, according to the report.

Daniels, of Aurora, was charged April 22 with theft from an at-risk person, identity theft, providing a false statement to a pawnbroker and criminal possession of a financial transaction device, prosecutors said.

Daniels was hired as a temporary worker at The Carillon through a temp agency because of the growing number of coronavirus cases at the facility, according to KMGH.

She will reappear in court on June 22, the station reported.

via: https://nypost.com/2020/04/27/caretaker-steals-ring-from-elderly-woman-dying-of-coronavirus/

Photo Credit: Denver District Attorney’s Office