Funeral worker who stole from dead child’s family has done it before, Indiana cops say

A funeral home worker who stole thousands in donations to the family of a dead toddler was charged with new crimes, Indiana police say.

Now she’s accused of stealing from a widow and other mourning families, according to police.

Caroline Marie Rich, a funeral counselor in Evansville, Indiana, was charged this month with stealing more than $18,000 in GoFundMe contributions to the family of 3-year-old Oliver Dill, who died after being forgotten in a hot car, the Evansville Courier & Press reported. Rich was a friend to the family, the newspaper reports.

Rich is accused of taking the donations and money from the family and depositing it into her own bank account, according to the Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Office. She was fired by Alexander Funeral Homes and the business reimbursed the family, police said.

Detectives continued investigating Rich.

On Thursday, the Sheriff’s Office announced eight more felony charges against Rich involving three more families who made funeral and burial arrangements through the funeral home.

Rich is accused of meeting with a family to pre-plan funerals for a couple who had used the business for other relatives, police said. They paid Rich about $8,800 through a PayPal account, and she gave them fraudulent invoices and receipts, police said.

In another case, Rich took about $9,200 from a woman who was planning services for her mother and herself — as well as a grave marker for her dead brother, police said. Again, she kept the money and didn’t pay the funeral home, police said.

A widow who wanted to purchase memory books honoring her deceased husband wrote a check to Rich’s personal account. Rich told the widow that she would use her employee discount to buy the books, but she never ordered them and kept the money, police said.

The Sheriff’s Office is continuing to investigate other cases.

Sheriff Dave Wedding said the funeral home has cooperated and been helpful during the investigation.

With all the cases, Rich has stolen about $40,000, WFIE reported.

“I strongly urge anyone who has made arrangements with Rich to look over their paperwork and contact Alexander (Funeral Home) if they believe any impropriety has occurred,” Wedding said, according to the news release. “We would particularly ask that anyone who has pre-planned funeral arrangements through Rich make contact, as years could pass before these services would be needed and a fraud subsequently discovered.”

This story was originally published September 27, 2019 at 6:16 PM with the headline "Funeral worker who stole from dead child’s family has done it before, Indiana cops say."