Kari Allegro, Escrow Officer for Ticor Title with the Woodland Hills office in California, opened a sale transaction. The sellers, Mary A. Richman and a company we will call "RE Holdings," were selling a condo for $335,000. She sent the order to her title department, where her co–workers did a search and found two uninsured deeds in the chain of title.

In April of 2011, Darren Deeds, a Vietnam Veteran, purchased the condo. On November 29, 2012, a deed was recorded transferring the property to Darren Deeds, Mary A. Richman and RE Holdings. On February 12, 2016, another deed was recorded where Deeds transferred his interest in the property to Richman.

These deeds were cause for alarm because neither of them were recorded as a part of an insured transaction. They were also held onto for a long time after they were executed. The first deed was executed on February 28, 2012 and the second on March 16, 2012.

Even more concerning was the fact Darren passed away on March 22, 2012. Kari had no way of confirming with Darren if he did, in fact, sign the deeds, and she was concerned whether he was of sound mind or not. She dug in further.

Kari pulled a copy of the deed of trust signed by Darren when he purchased the property in 2011. She compared his signature to the two deeds and discovered they did not match. In May 2012, a deed of trust dated September 12, 2011, was recorded against the property — also not part of an insured transaction. Kari compared the signature on this document and was unable to confirm or deny whether it was Darren's signature. Both of these loans were now in default.

As if the uninsured deeds, deceased former owner and mismatched signatures were not enough to stop the transaction dead in its tracks, Kari searched the California Secretary of State's website for a status for RE Holdings, but the search came back with no legal entities under that name.

Kari asked the listing agent to obtain copies of the organizational documents and noticed a man named Tom Morrow signed the purchase and sale agreement on behalf of RE Holdings. According to the Statement of Information provided by Richman, her husband's name was Tom Morrow. Perhaps Richman really did marry a rich man.

Was it a case of elder abuse? We will probably never know. Kari never spoke to Richman, but Richman did indicate to the listing agent that Darren was her uncle. Kari shared her concerns with her Chief Title Administrator, Chris Akin, who chose not to insure the sale, since he could not be certain the deeds in the chain of title were validly executed.

Chris submitted this story for nomination so Kari would receive her well–deserved reward of $1,500. We agree with Chris. Thank you for your hard work Kari.