Daytona Beach Shores, FL - A woman who was hired as a private home health care aide is arrested and charged by police after she steals over $40,000 from a woman with Alzheimer's and Dementia.
52-year-old Christine Goeke had a warrant issued for her arrest after the grandson of an Alzheimer's and Dementia patient reported that she had been possibly taking advantage of his grandmother's condition by cashing checks in her name, mostly in the amount of $180.
The investigation began on May 1st of this year when the son contacted police.
He informed the police that he was the grandson of a woman with Alzheimer's and Dementia, who used to receive health care benefits from her husband until he passed away in February.
Part of her benefits included receiving reimbursement checks for pre-paid home health care services. Those services benefited both her and her late husband.
After the grandson and his sister were given power of attorney over her, the began reviewing bank statements and found concerning activity regarding her account.
He found that her caregiver, Goeke, has been cashing several checks a day in her name, beginning last May.
The deposits from January of this year totaled $12,060, the biggest in the line of deposits. When police investigated Goeke's bank statements for January, they found she had charges for Disney's Magic Kingdom, Tortuga Fest and Carnival Cruise. All of which sprouted red flags with authorities as they hadn't been consistent with her spending habits in the past months.
The total amount deposited into her account from her patient's bank account in her 11-month employment totaled $76,615.26. The amount of money she claimed to have been owed for the work done was $34,207.50. These numbers showed a total of $42,407.76 was stolen from her patient's bank account.
Police checked with another employee from the same company who worked for the same woman with hours similar to Goeke and found that the checks written to him from her bank account totaled $21,311.70. Which to police seemed fair for the number of hours worked at a rate of $15.00 an hour.
After their investigation, police tried to contact Goeke on October 4th, but did not find her home. Instead, they found her husband. They asked if her husband could call her for them.
It wouldn't be long before police received a call from Goeke who said she would like to meet with them, as she was at a different address caregiving for a woman who broke her hip.
However, on the way to the address, police received a voicemail message from a woman that said Goeke had called them and sounded panicked, wondering why the police wanted to speak to her.
Eventually, investigators and Goeke finally met up. They went over her invoices and deposits made in her account from her patient's bank.
Police eventually confirmed through interviews, statements from witnesses, and inconsistencies in Goeke's interview that the pattern of multiple checks written per day and the total amount she would have received for the work proved she had stolen around $47,000 from her patient.
Investigators would receive a warrant for Goeke's arrest last Friday (October 19th) and would end up arrested her on Wednesday (October 24th), charged with elderly exploitation.
Daytona Beach Shores police say there is a reason to believe Goeke had been employed as a private home health aide at other locations around Volusia County. If anyone believes they may have been victimized, they are asked to call their local law enforcement agency.
