CRIME 'This is my dad’s house’: Daughter says caregiver took deed to her father’s home weeks before his death

Signwatcher

Signwatcher

Has No Life - Lives on TB
www.wsmv.com

‘This is my dad’s house’: Daughter says caregiver took deed to her father’s home weeks before his death

A South Carolina man’s daughter says his caretaker had the deed to his home signed over to herself weeks before his death.
www.wsmv.com www.wsmv.com

'This is my dad’s house’: Daughter says caregiver took deed to her father’s home weeks before his death

By Makayla Evans and Jordan Gartner
Published: Aug. 29, 2026 at 4:06 PM EDT

CONWAY, S.C. (WMBF/Gray News) - A South Carolina man’s daughter says his caretaker had the deed to his home signed over to herself weeks before his death and never said anything about it.

Nora Rowland says nurse Sarah Smalls began caring for her 75-year-old father, Robert, through Griswold Home Care in March 2024.

However, Rowland, who lives in Maryland, said that shortly after her dad came under Smalls’ care, she began hearing less and less from him, which was highly unusual.

“My dad was always a daddy’s girl type thing, so it was always him and me throughout my whole life,” Rowland said. “We FaceTimed every week.”

Rowland said she got worried after not hearing from him on Father’s Day, so she drove to Conway to check on him.

When she arrived at his house, Rowland said she found the front door had been changed and a Ring doorbell camera had been installed.

Rowland said she pressed the doorbell and Smalls answered through the Ring camera with news no daughter ever wants to hear.

“She tells me, ‘This isn’t the way that I wanted to tell you, but your dad died, and there’s a bunch of other stuff I have to tell you too. Just wait there,’” Rowland said.

Rowland said she ended up finding out her father had been dead for three days.

“I went in, and everything was different,” Rowland said. “She had put up random photographs of people I’d never seen before. The walls were painted.”

Rowland said it looked as if a new family had moved into her father’s home.

According to the daughter, Smalls returned shortly after, and she was hoping to get some answers. But instead, Smalls accused her of breaking in and called police.

Rowland said that when Conway police arrived, to her surprise, Smalls showed officers the deed showing the house in her name and treated Rowland and her partner as the ones trespassing.

“I’m walking out of the house expecting them to come and help, and they put my partner and me in handcuffs immediately,” Rowland said. “I just kept saying, ‘I don’t know what’s going on; this is my dad’s house. My dad is dead.’”

Police body-camera footage showed a neighbor telling officers he had been worried for weeks about what he was seeing next door.

“She [Smalls] was allegedly coming here during the day and taking care of him, and one day she started moving furniture out, and he disappeared,” the neighbor shared. “She was only in here a very short time, and Bob, he was not within his wits at all. You could’ve talked him into just about anything. I even called senior services and asked them to look into it.”

Documents show changes to Robert’s affairs in the months before his death, Rowland said, all without her knowledge.

Records show that in April of this year, Smalls was named as the father’s power of attorney. On April 17, a quitclaim deed transferred his Conway home to her for $5.

Recorded bank statements also showed money transfers from Robert’s account to Smalls, including after he died.

Smalls told WMBF News to contact her lawyer and then called police when crews went to the home.

Horry County’s registrar of deeds, Marion Foxworth III, said his office does not investigate people’s motives, only whether a deed meets South Carolina’s basic legal requirements.

“If it contains all the correct information to meet the legal standard, then we record it,” Foxworth said. “We don’t check whether what’s in that deed is fair or right.”

He said deed theft in the county does not happen often, but his office has seen a major decrease since real estate agents, the association of realtors and the real estate bar began cracking down on training to verify deed owners.

According to Rowland, the criminal charges against her have since been dismissed, but she is still fighting to challenge the deed that transferred her father’s house to his nurse.

The daughter said her father was classified as a vulnerable adult with Parkinson’s and a brain injury, and she worries he never understood what he was signing away.

“It’s so easy for them to get taken advantage of,” Rowland said. “He was a nice man; he would never think that someone could do this to him. I really can’t emphasize enough how many other people could easily get taken advantage of like this.”

Conway police said they are investigating.

WMBF News reached out to Griswold Home Care months ago. A representative said they had no knowledge of the situation. Rowland provided documents obtained through subpoena that she says show otherwise.

WMBF News attempted
to reach Griswold again this week; the calls were not returned.
 
Eat your 5 vegetables a day so you live long enough to be beaten stupid and robbed by supposed caregivers, This is a major issue in a lot of countries who employ foreigners as low paid workers , some were getting beaten stupid and only caught because family had installed hidden security cameras, many are getting robbed in hospitals of their jewellery and saving,

My father passed away 11 months ago , we were never close estranged is a understatement to say the least but I feel I am going to be conned out of his property by the rich side of the family like the story above nobody informed me that he had passed away for nearly 2 weeks
 
As a prior healthcare Admin/CEO, I've seen, heard an investigated this a few times. About 20 years ago, we had a nurse on a med-surg wing who became overly friendly with an elderly male patient, and she was even coming in to "visit" him when off her shifts. Eventually, he was transferred to our LTC wing, and the nurse continued to visit with the man.

One day the wife of the male patient came to the Social Services department of the LTC, and she claimed her husband's check book was missing, large sums of money was missing from their bank accounts, and other concerns. Eventually, the patient expired, but money kept missing from their accounts, and then credit card bills begin arriving and her husband's luxury car could not be found.

Once we investigated and learned of her unusual behaviors, we notified the police. Upon their investigation, they found the patient had signed over the auto, placed the nurse on his bank accounts, and had even changed his will from his wife to the nurse. All the while he was basically incompetent, but there had not been a formal doctor's diagnosis of such.

Of course, we fired the nurse, filed a complaint with the board of nursing and department of health, and contacted our legal team for other actions. However, a few months later, the surviving wife filed a law suit against the facility and ownership, and we too filed a suit against the nurse.

After about a year, we decided to make a settlement offer to the wife and continued our legal actions against the previous nurse. However, law enforcement took their actions prior to our case making it to final resolution.

Their were a few types of these in the 3 decades before my second retirement, but after I retired again, a friend of mine and the owner and CEO of Life Care Centers of America became a similar victim himself with a 40 year younger Asian care giver who cared for his dying wife at their mansion in Cleveland, TN. After the wife's death, she married him in a private, secret wedding, took over his accounts and the multi-billion dollar business of LCCA and spent many millions from the private bank accounts. Mostly for purchasing expensive homes and autos for her various family members, jewelry, and other properties. She even drove the company into a $300 million debt before one of the sons of the CEO could obtain a court order stripping her of all company authority and placing himself as the CEO.
 
Last edited:
There should be a special hell for people who abuse children and elders.

One of my best friends has intercepted a similar situation with her 83 yr old father who has become infatuated with the woman half his age who cared for his wife. Thankfully they had money and property moved into a family trust, and my friend is staying with him until she can get him moved closer to her home.

To quote my eloquent husband - rat bastards.
 
I have a similar situation happening now. It really is multiple felonies. It involves elder abuse which I have on video. Taking of property and taking money out of accounts. I have turned it over to Social Service, the DA (worthless bastard) and the FBI since he is 100% combat Vet. Wounded five times in action. He has not been mentally competent for over a year but I could not get evaluations done. I think the FBI still are looking at it since it involves his disability money. People that do this to the elderly have a very special place reserved for them.
 
My 94-year old father has a caregiver/housekeeper who helps with his daily needs. Keeps the house clean, drives him to doctor appointments, makes sure he is taking his meds, etc. Does all of this for him on a "volunteer", unpaid basis. From the outside, it looks like a good setup for him but there are things about it that make me feel uncomfortable. Won't get into the details here, but I have discussed with a lawyer and he agrees that it's best to keep a close eye on the situation.

He told me that he is seeing an increase in the number of cases of property fraud. Forged quit claim deeds are being used to record property transfers, then the property is sold. Many times it will take a lawsuit to reestablish ownership.

Many towns/cities are now offering a free property fraud monitoring service. You can get information related to setting one up with your Town Clerk or Assessor's office. It alerts owners when any documents are recorded against their property, enabling them to detect potential fraudulent activities such as unauthorized sales or mortgages.

It will also identify things like property liens. For example, if your elderly father forgets to pay his property tax or sewer bill and the town puts a lien on his property (yea, this happened to my Dad!)

After discussing with the lawyer, I was able to set up an alert for my father. Also did one for DH and I for our property.
 
Gizmom said:
My 94-year old father has a caregiver/housekeeper who helps with his daily needs. Keeps the house clean, drives him to doctor appointments, makes sure he is taking his meds, etc. Does all of this for him on a "volunteer", unpaid basis. From the outside, it looks like a good setup for him but there are things about it that make me feel uncomfortable. Won't get into the details here, but I have discussed with a lawyer and he agrees that it's best to keep a close eye on the situation.

He told me that he is seeing an increase in the number of cases of property fraud. Forged quit claim deeds are being used to record property transfers, then the property is sold. Many times it will take a lawsuit to reestablish ownership.

Many towns/cities are now offering a free property fraud monitoring service. You can get information related to setting one up with your Town Clerk or Assessor's office. It alerts owners when any documents are recorded against their property, enabling them to detect potential fraudulent activities such as unauthorized sales or mortgages.

It will also identify things like property liens. For example, if your elderly father forgets to pay his property tax or sewer bill and the town puts a lien on his property (yea, this happened to my Dad!)

After discussing with the lawyer, I was able to set up an alert for my father. Also did one for DH and I for our property.
Click to expand...
GEORGIA has this. It is not just the elderly with unscrupulous "caregivers" who can have their land stolen. ANYONE can file a deed to take over another person's property and then sell the property or use it to take out mortgages--which can become the responsibility of the rightful property owner.

You can register with "FANS" under the Georgia Superior Court Clerks Cooperative Authority - Home Page - Filing Activity Notification System -
to receive these notifications regarding your property if any changes are made to your deeds. You can register by name, property address, and document notification (requires you know Plat Book # and Page # for your property).

1788485679553.png
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top