A 96-year-old woman who was murdered while preparing to make cookies in 2022 was the target of an elaborate murder plot after four suspects became angry that it would take her too long to die on her own, police say. did.
Violet Alberts was found dead in her bed in her home in Montecito, California, on May 27, 2022, Santa Barbara County Sheriff Paul Brown said during an investigation. Press conference on Thursday.
Alberts’ caretakers discovered her body and noticed that “lively” members of the community had laid out ingredients on the kitchen table to make cookies for an upcoming birthday.
Officers found a broken window in her bedroom, prompting them to thoroughly search the house.
Citing the coroner’s report, Brown said an autopsy determined Albert’s death was due to asphyxiation (when the body is not given enough oxygen) and ruled it a homicide.
Investigators found she was the victim of a “tangled and sinister web of financial exploitation.”
Pauline Macarreno, 48, was at the center of the “manipulation and deceptive targeting” of “valued” community members in Montecito, California.
“Through deceptive means, Macareno orchestrated a series of transactions, including forging documents and establishing a fraudulent entity, in order to gain illegal control over Mr. Alberts’ assets,” Brown said.
Maccareno allegedly defrauded an elderly woman in 2020 when he offered her a misleading reverse mortgage, which “ultimately led to the fraudulent acquisition of her property,” investigators said. found.
Alberts’ two-bedroom, three-and-a-half bath home is estimated to cost just under $6 million, according to real estate site Zillow.
According to reports, the widow’s home was in an affluent Santa Barbara neighborhood known for being home to celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey, Ellen DeGeneres, and Prince Harry and Meghan Markel. KTLA.
But Brown said the fraudsters got tired of waiting for Albert to die in order to inherit the property and hatched a plan to kill the widow.
She carried out the murder-for-hire plot with the help of three men: Harry Basmajian, Henry Rostomian, and Ricardo Martín Delcampo.
Investigators discovered that Martin Delcampo and Rostomian had gone on a “reconnaissance trip” three days before Alberts’ murder.
“This vital discovery highlights the premeditated nature of this crime and highlights the calculated efforts of the perpetrators to search Mr Alberts’ home and plan their vicious and reprehensible actions. ” Brown pointed out.
In June 2023, authorities released photos of the Porsche Cayenne believed to be the getaway car used to kill Alberts.
Over the next several months, investigators spent countless hours unraveling the chain of events that ultimately led to the arrests of all three men.
Mr. Rostomian and Mr. Mach, who were each arrested in February, are currently being held in the Santa Barbara County Jail without bail on charges of murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
Basmajian was arrested in January on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder. Still, Brown said he suffered a “life-threatening medical emergency” while in federal custody in Los Angeles on an unrelated charge and is now “virtually brain dead.”
Maccareno was arrested in June 2022 on charges of elder abuse and sentenced to six years in prison for taking advantage of Alberts’ weaknesses and committing fraud.
Brown said she is pending additional charges as the murder-for-hire plot was uncovered.
Ms. Alberts lost her husband, David Alberts, in 1993, and “relied on friendships and connections in the neighborhood, through which she gained a sense of belonging to a close-knit community,” Ms. Brown said.
“Despite facing memory and cognitive challenges, Violet’s spirit remained undaunted until she was killed.”
