Who’s Eva? Or, “Truth is Stranger than Fiction”
Last names omitted, since one of the parties is very litigious. But the last name is the same as a President who was assassinated.
On Tuesday December 13, I found out my father Frank had passed away. He actually died on November 29. This would be enough to process in a week, but of course, being the next of kin, I wanted to know why we weren’t notified.
The details of his death were gathered from a house-sitter who told me that the neighbors noticed a change in behavior of the dogs, so they came to see if Frank was OK. He was unconscious and was rushed to the hospital where he regained consciousness. His condition improved, and he was moved to a care facility, where he later died. The house-sitter, Janet, was a dog sitter in the group of Whippet owners my father was in, and she helped to re-home his dogs.
Enter Eva, who proceeded to have him cremated and signed his death certificate as his daughter. His what? Frank only had three daughters, Michelle, Mindy and Nancy, as anyone who knew him well could attest. Frank married our mother in 1968 and has been our father ever since. Our birth father never give up parental rights, so even though Frank tried to adopt us, it was never finalized.
So, who the heck is Eva? The housesitter gave us her phone number and I called her. She is Marion’s daughter. Ah. OK. Marion. Frank’s online friend for a few years. Marion lives in Massachusetts and never lived in CA. I will re-create the timeline so this all makes sense.
Frank and our mother married in 1968. Our lives were a series of moves, mostly every year which was part of Frank’s job as a park ranger. We lived in Humboldt county while Frank finished his degree at Humboldt State, Capistrano Beach, San Clemente, Angel Island, the Russian River and Lake Folsom, where he retired from the Park service around 1985.
Frank and my mother divorced in 1994. She could no longer tolerate the alcoholism and the mean spirit and basically had to flee, because he vowed that if she left him, that he would kill her. She took a bag of clothes and fled to her friend’s house, whose husband was an Auburn Policeman. Frank was taken by the sheriff to the Placer County mental facility to detox and be held until he was no longer a threat to our mother. Fortunately, the sheriff also removed all firearms from the premises. They were returned at some later time. My sister Nancy and I were the people who bailed him out of County (so to speak).
After their divorce, Frank dated a very nice woman named Linda. We were very fond of Linda, talked to her often, and were very glad that Frank found someone to spend time with. Where he lived was quite remote, and he was very lonely, so Linda was a blessing. She lived with him from 1994 to 2004. Eventually, she could no longer put up with the alcoholism and the abusive behavior associated with it, and she talked to my mother. “How did you put up with this?”. My mom answered “I could only put up with it for 25 years so I didn’t, I divorced him”. It is a testament to the beautiful character of these two women that they can be friends and fond of each other, under the circumstances.
In 2006, Frank sent us an email saying “I’m emptying the attic, closets, cabinets, cupboards, shelves, etc… If there is anything you want, let me know pretty soon”. This was a curious bit of communication. I called him, and asked him what was up. He told me he was suicidal, and was planning to get on his boat and sail into the sunset. I talked him through it over the following few months, and he “backed down off the ledge”. I knew he was depressed due to loneliness, so I encouraged him to get out and meet people. If I had only known… I should have been more specific.
After Linda left, Frank enrolled in some dating sites, like Eharmony and Match.com. His description was “Wealthy, lonely old man seeks companionship”. You can imagine all the “lovely” ladies who responded. He often sent us pictures of these ladies, who never stuck around more than a few dates. I speculated that they figured he was still in good enough health and they would lose interest. He also was a person who was incredibly self absorbed, so he wasn’t really a joy to be around. It seemed that luring gold-diggers and toying with them to have them pay attention to him became a hobby. Since he willingly sent us pictures of these “ladies” it seemed to become sort of an inside family joke. For my sisters and I, the parade of gold-diggers was pure theater. We knew he would spend all his money and there would be nothing left at the end, and it was his money so who cares? In 2009, Frank took out a reverse mortgage on his house to fund the fun times with the ladies who responded to his dating profile.
At this time (2009), Frank met Eva on Match.com. After many emails between them, she convinced him to date her mother who was a year older than him. Frank proceeded to take Marion, her daughter Eva, and Eva’s children on very expensive vacations. He invited us to join them on one vacation where he sent us the description of it, which included the reservation of a Family Suite for $18,000 per week. I hope it was all inclusive! But of course, my sisters and I lead frugal lives, work hard for a living and couldn’t afford to join them (he did not offer to pay for us). The pictures indicated Marion’s family had a really good time. That week of vacation is the only time Eva and my father even lived in the same location.
So, in my conversation with Eva after Dad’s death, she informed me that “a few years ago Frank adopted me” (the record shows August 2014). That certainly was a surprise to my sisters and I. He never mentioned that in all the conversations I have had with him in the last 2 years. It would seem that “I adopted an adult woman” might have made it into the conversation. In early January, we did see the adoption certificate from Massachusetts, which didn’t show any approval from Frank (we found out later that he did go there, with all arrangements made by Eva and her mother Marion). Apparently in MA, an adult can adopt themselves to a parent without any approval from the parent, as long as it is “in the best interest of the child” Wow! That seems like a crazy law! And why do people do adult adoptions? It is strictly for inheritance. I certainly am glad that CA law makes a lot more sense. In CA, both the adoptee and the adopting parent have to be part of the petition, and both have to show up in Superior Court. Apparently, there was no adoption in CA. It’s not clear that states evaluate the conditions (statutes) of adult adoption in other states to be sure they would be valid.
Since Frank died without a will, the estate will have to be handled by the courts. Eva immediately “lawyered up” and will not speak to us other than through lawyers. One question I asked in my one and only conversation with Eva was “why didn’t you contact us when he became ill?”. Her response was “I didn’t know how to contact you”. So, I looked on Facebook, and what do you know? She is one of Frank’s Facebook friends, as well as Mindy, Nancy and I (and we were identified by relationship as daughter). So the truth is that with literally one click she could have sent us a message that our father was sick. It is obvious she was never acting in good faith it has become clear she is just going for the loot he had. Of course, our phone numbers were also in his address book at his home, which the house-sitter had access to. I imagine the fact that we found out about his death before she received the entirety of his estate was not part of her plan.
As soon as Frank died, Eva had him cremated by telling the funeral service that she was his only daughter. They had no way to know whether this was true or not. Cremation law requires “a majority of children” to approve of the cremation. Since Eva deliberately did not inform us of his illness and his death, we certainly were never asked about the cremation. We would have agreed, but that isn’t the point. So after she had him cremated, and got a death certificate (with Eva SoAndSo, Daughter on it), Eva had a realtor come to the house to determine what it is worth. It was in very bad shape, with rotten wood, dog feces and urine everywhere, rotten decks, and some appliances which don’t work. Apparently, the realtor told Eva that the house could be fixed up and sold and there was some equity there. This was all done before we were even told that our father had died. (Update: The house sold. The address is 20210 Rim Rock Court Foresthill CA).
At first, Nancy (real sister) and I were trying to work out with Eva what needs to happen with Dad’s estate. We were cordial but I can’t say the same for her. Our second communication via email from her was “here is the phone number for my lawyer”. I called the lawyer to determine why she needs a lawyer, what she has done so far, has she petitioned the court for authority to administer the estate, etc. His response was “she has the adoption papers, you don’t so she is the only heir”. I politely informed him that no, the three of us were adopted in 1970 (or so we thought), so we were the next of kin. He demanded our adoption papers and I rejected his authority to even demand them. At that point, he demanded to speak to our lawyer. We didn’t have one under retainer at this point (we had just learned our father died the day before), but Nancy had spoken with a lawyer in Auburn who was too busy to take our case until January. Eva’s lawyer immediately called this lawyer.
Since we were children in the adoption, we personally don’t have any of the records of the adoption. We requested them from two of the counties we lived in at the time we know our adoption was attempted (between 1968 and 1973). It is made difficult by the nature of our childhood: from the time of our parent’s marriage in 1968 to 1973, we lived in 5 counties (San Diego, Humboldt, Orange, Marin and Sonoma). Before December 13, we never would have believed we would have to dig almost 50 years into the past to find our adoption documents. Anyone who knew Frank, knew he had three daughters, and there was never any question about it. We were never “eyeing” his estate, so we didn’t go to the lengths to be sure our validity as his children was legally rock-solid. Apparently, our adoption was never finalized (as we were informed by Orange County). We did receive the information from Orange County that our adoption was attempted but was not completed due to a legal barrier. Our birth-certificate father would not consent.
Was there a will? There may have been a copy in Frank’s house, but at this point, the house-sitter (who was being paid by Eva) has gone through his files and could have found a will. Of course, if she did, then this would be devastating to Eva’s “claim” of being the only kin, and so it would be possible it was already been removed and/or destroyed.
The house-sitter Janet, seemed to be an innocent person who is stuck in the middle between someone in MA claiming to be Frank’s “daughter” and Frank’s step daughters. She took instructions from Eva (since she was paying her) as if Eva is the sole person who is “heir” to Frank’s estate. Janet told us that the neighbor named Ron had already come and taken the guns. This would seem to be completely out of line to start taking a dead person’s belongings without any proper legal jurisdiction.
By mid December, we needed to have local law enforcement involved. The fact that the house sitter was “protecting” the house from us, his actual daughters, was ridiculous. We wanted the court to determine who should be part of his estate, if any. All my sisters (my real sisters, not my pseudo sister) had wanted is the personal property which belonged to our grandparents and our father and for his estate to be settled legally by the State of California and for his belongings to be protected from those who may be pillaging it already.
Nancy had sent a cordial email on 12/18 to Eva telling her she was going to the house (the morning of 12/19) to go through our grandparents belongings, and inquiring about whether the Sheriff was notified about the removal of the guns. There was no response. Nancy called the Sheriff to notify him the guns were removed from the premises. The Sheriff went to Frank’s house and talked with the house sitter. The story was the guns were “borrowed” by the neighbor Ron. We asked for Ron to return the guns to us, but he refused. We have repeatedly asked and he has been surly and aggressive, so we will be going to small claims court (on July 21, 2017). Read more about the neighbor and the guns.
Apparently, this visit by the Sheriff really upset the house sitter and Eva.
On 12/19 I posted on Frank’s Facebook page that he had died. I also sent an email to Jean, one of Dad’s whippet friends, thanking her for taking care of getting his dogs placed into homes. It appears that Jean is connected to Marion somehow.
We notified Eva and Janet that we were coming to Frank’s house on 12/26. When we arrived we found a scrawled note posted on the door: “I Janet So-and-so, am the legal resident of this property. No one is aloud (yes, that is the way she spelled it) to enter this house without my express permission. Trespassers will be reported to the sheriff’s dept and will be subject to arrest”. So, that’s really co-operating! We walked around outside, and took pictures. As we were leaving, the Sheriff pulled up. We were quite glad to see him! He talked to us for a while to try to understand what was going on. “Someone from MA, was adopted as an adult to your father?”. Yep. He called the neighbor who had the guns, and who was the person who found our dad unconscious. We discussed the situation as it was at the time. The sheriff advised us that we had to get a court order to get the squatter out. So we did.
On 12/29 we went to Placer County legal self help to get a Letter of Special Administration. This is used when an estate needs to be tended to before probate begins. In the month that our father had been dead, Eva didn’t call the mortgage company, nor any of the other agencies or utilities that had to be notified. She also didn’t seem to mind that the guns were removed from the property, and she deliberately had the house sitter in place, seemingly to make sure we were not able to get into our father’s house. We received the Special Administration through a judicial proceeding called Ex Parte, which is done for time sensitive, urgent matters.
After Nancy received the Letters, she went to the bank to determine the state of the finances. The checking account had been over-drawn by several thousand dollars in the weeks after his death. The checks written were not signed by our father. The largest check was written to Ms. Housesitter, Janet for $1000. The signature was not our father’s and in fact, it was remarkably similar to the handwriting on the scrawled note posted by Janet. Curious? Looks like forgery. There was also a check written to Ron (for $500), also not Frank’s signature. We were told that since Frank was dead, there is no way to prove forgery. The last check written was dated the day he died 11/29. He must have been busy that day, writing checks and then dying.
So, we got a lawyer to create a 3 day notice to evict her. Did this ever stir the pot! As a result of our attempt to evict Janet to secure Frank’s estate, Eva got herself a local lawyer whose name is also EVA!. Eva the lawyer did her own Ex Parte to have Nancy removed as Special Administrator on the grounds there “were no guns” (a blatant falsehood, even the sheriff knows about the guns) and to state that Ms. Housesitter was allowed to be there because Eva said so. Now, it seems that the laws bend around Eva, since she had no legally defined authority at all to have a house sitter in the home.
At this same time, I had searched to find Linda to notify her of Frank’s death and the bizarre story of the “adopted” daughter. In speaking with her, she said “I have a few wills he wrote”. She made copies of them, and sent them to us by email. One said “My boat, the Vagary, goes to my scuba diving buddy Erick. Everything else goes to Linda (name withheld). Anyone who objects to this is Disinherited. (Brilliant DAD!). I travelled to where Linda lives to see her and get the original wills for the court date on February 9 (2017). We thought that having a will would rebut the claims of Frank being intestate. Nancy had quite the rebuttal to the Lawyer Eva’s petition, brought up the wills, and the judge denied Eva the lawyer’s petition. Whoo boy, was she mad!
Afterward, Eva the lawyer found a law that says that if a will was written before a child is adopted, then the estate reverts to as if there was no will. Who makes this stuff up? Seems like a will should win over no will any day. Besides, if Frank wanted Eva to have anything, all he had to do was write her a post-it note like he did before for Linda. This is what makes this so unnerving, that he could have written her into the will if he wanted to. Just write what you want on a piece of paper, in your own handwriting, sign and date it. It is perfectly legal (at least in California). This is called a holographic will.
What we have found is that for purposes of being declared as adopted by a stepparent, that if the adoption was tried and was not completed due to a legal barrier (such as our birth father not releasing parental control) that the adoption would be considered the same as if it were completed. This would put us on equal footing to the middle aged woman who was “adopted” in 2014. We did investigate her adoption, and it was found to be “memorable” because it is very uncommon for a middle aged woman to be adopted by an old man. He certainly was impaired at the time, due to his alcoholism and his addiction to opioids, and he did go to Massachusetts for the adoption. No signature on the decree though. Please See CA Law on Stepchild Inheritance.
After the Ex Parte, Nancy tried to evict the squatter again, and this created another round of lawyerisms. Eva-the-lawyer says:
The case that I’m relying on for the premise that a legal barrier preventing adoption must persist until the death of the step-parent is Estate of Cleveland (1993) 17 CA 4th 1700, 1707-1709. Based on that case and my understanding of what the legal barrier to adoption was in your client’s situation, I do not believe that your client and her sisters would qualify as intestate heirs under Probate Code Sec 6408. Rather, I believe that under the omitted heir statute, my client’s intestate share would be 100% as Frank’s sole issue. If you have a case that holds otherwise, please share that citation with me.
One benefit of getting to look at the bank accounts, is a paper trail of what Frank was up to. Contrary to Eva’s claim that Marion was his fiancé (which she stated was true in court documents), we have found they were not in a committed relationship and that they had broken up. He subscribed to Eharmony again, in the last year of his life, and he connected up with several women. Other people have said that he and Marion were not together anymore, which is no surprise since she wouldn’t move to California, and he wouldn’t move to Massachusetts. He did visit MA during 4th of July last year (2016), as he emailed us to rave about the history of the area, but it seems that might have been the only contact in the last year. I also wonder, if she was his fiance, why didn’t she come to his side when he was on his deathbed? As it was, since Eva didn’t inform us of his illness, and others deferred to her claim of daughter, he died alone. Being deprived of a last conversation with our father is part of what really is most painful of this whole experience.
This story is envisioned to be part of a future TV series entitled “Death and Taxes”, which shows real-life stories surrounding probate dramas, and tax evasion. This particular episode will be produced when a production company can secure Rosie O’Donnell (or maybe Kathy Griffin) to play Eva.
The story continues in Part 2.
