In ‘Shockingly Morbid Scheme,’ Woman Admits Stealing From Dead Hudson Valley Mother
A woman was found guilty of stealing almost $40,000 from her deceased Hudson Valley mother.
On Friday, 47-year-old Sheryl A. Colson, aka Sheryl McClure of Kentucky pleaded guilty to grand larceny. Earlier this year, she was arrested in Kentucky and extradited to Orange County.
According to the New York State Inspector General’s Office, Colson stole $39,850 in workers’ compensation benefits meant for her long-deceased mother, a former Orange-Ulster BOCES employee.
Colson’s mother, a former nurse at Orange-Ulster BOCES in Goshen, begin receiving workers’ compensation benefits after she was injured on the job in 1997. Colson’s mother moved to Kentucky in 2007 and passed away in 2011, but $400 weekly checks kept coming from Orange-Ulster BOCES, officials say.
Colson, who had access to her mother’s financial affairs, continued signing the checks, depositing them into her mother’s bank account and using the account’s debit card to make purchases for more than two years after her mother passed away.
Colson’s purchases included payment of general household expenses and bills, restaurant tabs and products from an Indiana company specializing in the production of hand-blown glass pipes and other smoking devices.
“This defendant criminally enriched herself through a shockingly morbid scheme, stealing insurance benefits to which she was not entitled by manipulating her long-deceased mother’s financial accounts,” Inspector General Leahy Scott said.
As part of her guilty plea, Colson agreed to pay back $39,850. She will be sentenced this summer.
A Celebrity Sighting, Murder and High-Risk Sex Offender's Move Tops This Week's Local News
More From Hudson Valley Post
