9 Investigates how utilities were paid at dead woman's home where Kissimmee leader lived

KISSIMMEE, Fla. — 9 Investigates has been looking into claims that a Kissimmee mayor pro tem and her boyfriend were squatting inside a dead woman's home.

One of the things 9 Investigates uncovered is that the utilities they were using were automatically being taken out of the dead woman's account but not anymore.

The Kissimmee Utility Authority is crediting Channel 9 with getting that account deactivated.

A spokesperson for KUA said the company didn't realize Carol Woolsey had died until Channel 9’s story aired on May 6, but now that it’s aware, KUA is taking steps to close Woolsey's account, four years after she died.

9 Investigates obtained a letter from the Kissimmee Utility Authority to the estate of Woolsey.

It said, “KUA is not able to keep an account open in the name of a deceased person.”

It’s an account that had been auto-paying the utility bills at the home since Woosley died in 2012.

In April 2014, Kissimmee Mayor pro tem Sara Shaw and her boyfriend, Peter Sendtko, moved into the home under adverse possession. %

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Shaw told Channel 9 on Tuesday while she doesn't live at the home now, she once did, and it was all done legally.

"There is no squatting involved. Everything that Pete did is completely legal,” she said.

Channel 9 requested utility bills from the Mill Slough Road home from the time Woosley died in 2012, until April 2014.

The bills averaged about $78 a month, which covers trash, water and electric use.

In May of 2014, after Shaw and Sendtko moved in, the utility bills jumped hundreds of dollars.

In total, Sendtko and Shaw's utility use at the home cost over $6,700, and they didn't have to pay a dime.

Because the bills were being paid, a spokesperson for KUA said, “Unless someone tampers with our equipment or diverts power around the meter to avoid paying utilities would it be considered theft of utility service.”

Shaw said she and Sendtko tried to switch the utilities over when they first moved in, but were told they couldn't because they weren’t family of Woosley’s.

Shaw declined an on-camera Wednesday about the use of the utilities but in a statement said, "Pete has been doing everything right from the beginning."

Shaw and Sendtko lost their home to foreclosure in April 2014.

When they left, Shaw had an outstanding utility bill of $231 that she never paid to KUA.

It was eventually paid off when someone bought the home.

Cox Media Group