Deputies: Family accused of stealing $120K from 82-year-old Osceola County man

OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. — Osceola County deputies said a mother and her two grown children stole an elderly man's home and used his money to buy cars.

They're also accused of cashing his Social Security checks, deputies said.

Documents said Dianne Stevens and her grown son and daughter took advantage of the 85-year-old Jerry Smith, who, according to his family, would often get confused.

Detectives believe Smith met Stevens and her daughter Lisa in a Walmart parking lot where they approached him and convinced him they knew him.

They got $40 out of him that day and later offered to take care of his wife, who was in hospice care, deputies said.

When they started showing up at the home, Smith's wife, Marjorie, told her daughter about the strange people in her house and said she saw Lisa kissing her elderly husband.

Her daughter told Marjorie's husband to get them out.

Marjorie was confined to a bed at the time, and her family eventually moved her to a nursing home, where she died.

That was when the Stevens family moved into Smith’s home.

It became Lisa’s property for $1 in 2016 when Smith signed a quick claim deed, deputies said.

The home is now abandoned, and Smith’s family is unable to get it back from Lisa, who is in jail, according to deputies.

Marjorie's daughter said she lost touch with Smith, but learned he ultimately ended up homeless, living in a van in Kissimmee.

A trip to the hospital in March revealed he had cancer.

Deputies said during an interview, he told them he let multiple people take advantage of him.

Investigators have been able to track $120,926.82 they said the family exploited from Smith.

Cox Media Group