BY KEITH EPPS
Two people have been charged in a case involving an 83-year-old Stafford County woman who police say has been bilked out of about $100,000 since December.
Ellen Rebecca King, 61, and Mary Joel Ritter, 55, are charged with obtaining money by false pretenses. King is also charged with extortion and abduction, court records show.
The victim is not related to either woman but somehow ended up in King's custody after her husband died, court records show. The victim has been staying on Smith Lake Road.
King, Ritter and a man are also now listed as the woman's beneficiaries, according to an affidavit for a search warrant filed in Stafford Circuit Court.
The affidavit states that the victim became a customer at the Aquia Branch of BB&T in December.
She had recently sold her home in Washington after her husband died, the affidavit states, and somehow ended up in Stafford. Most of the funds were deposited in BB&T.
Since then, court records state, there have been frequent withdrawals from ATMs and from tellers totaling nearly six figures.
Bank officials have also reported seeing the woman being yelled at and grabbed in an aggressive manner by the people who accompanied her.
A bank manager contacted Stafford Detective Jim Harris on May 2 and expressed concern for the woman.
Bank officials said the woman was being mistreated in public and appeared to be being taken advantage of.
Harris wrote in the affidavit that officials were interested in what an 83-year-old woman would be spending so much money on, why all three of her accounts are being depleted and why King has safe deposit boxes at the bank, but no account.
Tellers told Harris that the woman's appearance and health has declined over the past six months, and she is now "frail, appears nervous and is literally shaking with fear."
Bank officials were able to speak with the victim alone in mid-March when she and the caretaker withdrew a large sum of money for a trip to Florida.
The woman told a banking official that she didn't want to go to Florida, but the conversation was interrupted before she could elaborate, court records state.
The following statement was also attributed to the victim: "I'm scared out of my mind. I'm in too deep."
The Florida Department of Social Services has also become involved in the investigation, the affidavit states.
King has a preliminary hearing scheduled in Stafford Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court on July 7. Ritter is scheduled to be arraigned today in the same court.
The investigation is continuing. It was not clear yesterday where the victim is now.
Keith Epps: 540/374-5404
Email: kepps@freelancestar.com