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A settlement agreement was drafted by Mary-the-lawyer. We were told “hurry, you must sign it and have it notarized by tomorrow before the court date”. So we did. I have come to realize the “hurry” was that they did not want us to read it carefully. There is a portion which basically says that we can’t sue her for anything ever, and that all we will get is the Winnebago and the Ford Escape, along with the things we rescued from the attic and the guns.

The good news is that she signed it too (or rather her lawyers did) and she can’t sue us for anything ever either. I can’t wait to turn this whole story into a screenplay for a TV show.

We received the Winnebago (worth about 20k) and the Ford Escape (worth about 10k) but both were a complete mess and had to have extensive cleaning and servicing to be able to be used. Oh, we also got a DR Mower which we specifically asked for, because DR Mowers ROCK! Nothing gets in the way of that thing.

After our legal fees, we will get only a few thousand (3k) dollars each. Frank had made Eva a beneficiary on his account so she directly inherited at least 100k plus whatever else comes from the sale of the house and other accounts which may have had money in them. It looks like Marion is also keeping our grandmothers ring.

We learned some very important lessons from this ordeal. My feeling is that we were fine before he died, and are fine now. We just had to experience a few months of seeing how awful some people can be. I have two awesome (real) sisters and a wonderful mother, fantastic nieces and nephews and no one else can have that. My family is priceless and Eva might get some money, but she will never get the joy that being part of my family brings.

And Frank? He was a messed up man. He had a hole in his soul that no amount of alcohol, drugs, money or manipulation could fill. He treated us badly our entire lives, and then blamed everyone but himself for his loneliness. We tried to be “good daughters” but in his eyes, that was impossible. One of the things he said was that his life’s biggest regret is that he was stuck with just having three daughters (no sons).

Amazingly, we all turned out great after being raised in such a hostile environment. I’m a retired satellite engineer, Mindy is a math teacher and Nancy owns her own business with her husband. None of us are addicts or drunks, and we all have good husbands and wonderful children.

Daughters: 3 Dad: 0

 

 

At the beginning of the ordeal of the death of our step-father, the “house-sitter” (Janet) talked to us once. She is the person who found the Christmas card from Nancy, and realized that there were other children of Frank’s who had not been notified of his illness and death by Eva who was paying her to stay in the house. The house-sitter (Janet) informed us in our first conversation, that the neighbor, Ron Roussey, had come into Frank’s house and taken his guns. Apparently, this didn’t alarm her or Eva enough to contact the authorities, so Nancy called the Placer County Sheriff and notified them that the guns had been stolen from our dead father’s home. The Placer County Sheriff came to the home, talked with Janet, and learned that the neighbor who took the guns was Ron Roussey. He then went to the home of Ron Roussey to investigate the theft of the guns. At that time Ron told the Sheriff that he “borrowed” the guns and was holding them for safe keeping.

On December 26, Nancy, her husband and I went to Frank’s house. We found a crudely written note (by Janet) that said “no one is aloud”. We walked around the property and took pictures. As we were leaving, the Sheriff drove up and asked us what we were doing. We explained that we were Frank’s daughters and we were at his home to find out what was going on. He was the same Sheriff that investigated the guns, and he went and got Ron Roussey so that we could all discuss the situation. Ron admitted he had the guns, and he said that Frank owed him money so he took the guns. We pointed out (and the Sheriff agreed) that he can’t just take the guns. He insisted that Frank owed him money so he was keeping the guns. The sheriff said that we had to solve this in civil court (small claims court).

I have filed a suit in Small Claims court to get the guns returned to us. The guns were granted to us in the agreement which we made with Eva.

A side note: Since Nancy was the Special Administrator from December 28th through February, she was responsible for locating the bank accounts, assets and liabilities. What she found was that Frank’s checking account was overdrawn by $2000. She requested copies of the checks, and low and behold, the final checks drawn on his account were not signed by him (though they were signed in handwriting which matched Janet’s hand written note exactly) and two of them were written to Janet and Ron. The check to Ron was for $500. The last check was dated on the day of his death, November 29. It certainly was a busy day for him, being rushed by ambulance to the hospital, writing checks, and dying all in one day.

The hearing in Small Claims Court is scheduled for July 21, 2017 at 8:30. The order was sent to the Placer County Sheriff for serving Ron Roussey.