She would meet people over 65 — on a dating website, on an airplane or in a store. She would begin a relationship with them, talking to them about God, love and her desire to be with them and see them raise her children, prosecutors said. Then she would come up with scenarios in which she and her “brother” needed money immediately.
Ms. Boltos was 32 when she met Danny Barnett, who was 72, at a post office in January 2012, according to court records. Although they never lived together, they married about four months later, after Ms. Boltos said she needed health insurance to cover her cancer surgeries, prosecutors said.
Mr. Barnett bought Ms. Boltos a house, where she lived with Mr. Hill and her three children, court papers state. Mr. Barnett bought her a car and gave his Social Security and workers’ compensation checks to her.
When he was hospitalized and “did not appear to have his mental faculties,” she secured a power of attorney over his affairs, the court papers said. After Mr. Barnett died in 2016, she used her status as his wife to receive the proceeds of his life insurance policy, prosecutors said. In total, she took $353,923 from him, prosecutors said.
Lori Varnell, chief of the elder financial fraud unit at the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s office, said the authorities were able to recover two cars that had been stolen from the victims, but none of their money. She said Ms. Boltos and Mr. Hill had spent millions of dollars at casinos.
Mr. Olmstead said that by taking most of his life savings, Ms. Boltos and Mr. Hill denied him the freedom to do a lot of the things that he had hoped to do in retirement, like fix up his house and buy an airplane. They also took advantage of his affection for her and his desire to help her and her three children, he said.
“They come into your life,” he said. “They trample over everything that is sacred in your life. You really feel like a real fool. I felt like a real fool. I got emotionally involved with her and emotions override common sense.”
