A man is accused of creating a fake deed and a notary public is accused of signing off on it when the son of a woman in hospice care said her home had been sold without her knowledge or consent, Tennessee police said.
A quitclaim deed, or deed that relinquishes ownership over property, was filed May 17 for a Memphis home belonging to a woman receiving hospice care, according to an arrest affidavit from the Memphis Police Department.
The deed had been filed by a 47-year-old man who was not related to the woman, police said, and had been signed by a notary public.
Days later, the woman’s son, who has power of attorney for his mother, called police to say there was no way she had sold her home, according to the affidavit.
Her son said she had stage 4 cancer and dementia, and she was receiving hospice treatment in New Jersey at the time of the sale, police said.
When police questioned the man who they said had filed the deed May 20, he told investigators he purchased the home for $8,000 but was unable to provide any legal paperwork showing he had bought the home, according to the affidavit.
The man told officers he had permission to be inside the home cleaning it out, according to police, but again could not prove he owned the residence.
Then police reached out to the notary public who they said signed off on the quitclaim deed, police said.
The notary, a 25-year-old woman, told police she remembered notarizing the document and agreed to speak with investigators, but then she didn’t show up for her scheduled interview and stopped answering calls.
On Dec. 12, the man was charged with theft of property, forgery and unlawful draw of property transfer documents without interest in the property, court records show.
The same day, the woman was charged with official misconduct as a notary public for the State of Tennessee, court records show.
The status of the home was not released in arrest documents from police.
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