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PAYSON — A Utah County couple has been charged with stealing an elderly disabled man's extensive financial assets by befriending him and then cutting him off from the rest of his family until he died under deplorable conditions.
Troy Lynn Lerwill, 57, of Payson, and Katherine Gean Talley, 48, of Santaquin, were each charged Tuesday in 4th District Court with intentional aggravated abuse of a vulnerable adult and financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult, second-degree felonies.
Investigators say Lerwill became acquainted with a 70-year-old Payson man identified only as D.J. in 2020.
"D.J. had some mental health issues, including that he appeared to be a hoarder, was extremely private and independent, may have been autistic, appeared to have anxiety, was very fixed in his routines and habits, and was frugal to the point of miserliness. D.J. had financial assets exceeding $6 million as well as valuable collections of coins and sports cards," prosecutors wrote in the charging documents.
In March 2021, police say Lerwill had D.J.'s telephone landline service discontinued, and D.J. did not own a cellphone. D.J. had routinely asserted to family members that he did not want a cellphone "because his home phone was 'just fine.' This was the telephone number D.J. had his entire life and was his only means of communication," according to the charges.
Lerwill then reached out to D.J.'s financial advisers and told them to contact him if they needed to reach D.J., the charges state. Then on March 24, 2021, D.J. allegedly created a will that left his Beanie Baby collection to his "girlfriend" Talley, "and everything else, including his Payson home, to Lerwill.
"This was contrary to what D.J. had always told his financial advisers, which was that he didn't want to designate a beneficiary because he wanted his estate to go through probate," according to the charges.
On April 5, 2021, an improperly notarized power of attorney was given to Lerwill, who together with Talley on the same day "video recorded themselves bathing D.J., and sent the video to a few people, apparently to show that they were caring for D.J.," the charges state.
Two days later, Lerwill contacted the financial advisers and said that D.J. was dying and claimed he was refusing medical treatment, according to the charges.
"Lerwill wanted to know what forms he needed to get 'his' money. Suspicious, the financial advisers insisted on a face-to-face meeting with D.J.," the charges say. Lerwill "tried to circumvent that effort, trying to get them to talk on the phone or via video call, but the advisers insisted."
When the financial advisers arrived at D.J.'s home on April 9, 2021, Talley met them on the front porch and told them "what a blessing D.J. has been in their lives and that being a caretaker was the hardest thing in the world. She and Lerwill told the financial advisers that they were D.J.'s 'best friends' and that they'd been taking good care of him," according to the charging documents.
But when the advisers entered the home, they found it had no running water, and D.J. was in a bed with "a few days worth of urine and excrement," the charges allege. They described D.J. as "a breathing skeleton" and "in the midst of a heart attack" and called 911 for emergency medical crews to respond.
Lerwill and Talley claimed that D.J. had given them a "do not resuscitate" order and that "it was a spiritual experience watching him die the way he wanted to," the charging documents allege.
At the hospital, Lerwill claimed "that he was D.J.'s caregiver and advised them that D.J. was 'estranged' from his family members, which D.J.'s family members did not feel was true. D.J. died on April 12, 2021, of cancer. He was also malnourished and dehydrated. (Lerwill and Talley) told hospital staff that D.J. had no family and tried to have his body cremated immediately," according to the charges.
A staff member at the hospital, however, happened to recognize D.J. and contacted his nieces and nephews.
"The nephew and niece went to D.J.'s Payson home and found that D.J.'s coin collection, estimated to be worth over $1 million, was missing. A search warrant was executed on April 20, 2021, and D.J.'s home safe had been completely emptied. There is no indication that anyone other than Lerwill, Talley, and D.J. had been in the home, other than the financial advisers on April 9, 2021," prosecutors wrote in the charges.
