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MORRISONVILLE, N.Y. (AP) — Police say they've charged a woman with stealing nearly $20,000 in her deceased father's benefits as his body decomposed in his New York home.
WIRY-AM in Plattsburgh reports that troopers went to 91-year-old Ralph Teft's home in Morrisonville on May 11 after Clinton County Adult Protective Services discovered his body while conducting a welfare check.
Troopers say his body was covered by blankets on a day bed. Police say he died of natural causes three months earlier.
Investigators on Tuesday arrested 55-year-old Tina Cummings, of Morrisonville, and charged her with grand larceny. Police say she stole over $19,000 in her father's Social Security and retirement benefits issued between Feb. 1 and early May.
She's being held in the county jail on $10,000 bail. Her lawyer declined to comment on the charges.
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This story has been changed to correct day of arrest to Tuesday, not Monday, and to show that his daughter is 55, not 44.
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