Photo: Miami-Dade Corrections
A South Florida journalist was arrested for allegedly kidnapping her 88-year-old mother from her home and financially exploiting her out of over $20,000, according to NBC 6.
Catherine Areu Jones, 51, was charged with exploitation of the elderly, organized scheme to defraud, conspiracy to commit organized scheme to defraud, kidnapping, false imprisonment, and fraudulent use of personal identification, the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office announced Friday (December 9). Reporters say Areu Jones, who goes by Cathy Areu in the industry, formerly worked for The Washington Post and as a guest on Fox News.
Prosecutors accused Areu Jones of involuntarily placing her mother in assisted living and memory care facilities twice to gain control of the victim's financial assets. The first time, she allegedly tricked the victim into thinking she was going on an ice cream trip with her granddaughters, but Areu Jones actually locked her into an assisted living facility, according to officials.
The second time this happened, Areu Jones allegedly dragged her mother out of her Miami-Dade County home and put her in another facility. The victim has been released from both facilities thanks to interventions and investigations by the Department of Children and Families, prosecutors said. DCF received several reports about Areu Jones potentially exploiting her mother, prompting an investigation in 2019.
Detectives found that the victim lost a total of $224,000 from the suspect taking money from a reverse mortgage on her mother's home, using credit cards in the victim's name, and withdrawing money from the elderly woman's bank accounts.
An arrest warrant has been out for Areu Jones since June, but authorities claimed she moved to different places and even Mexico to avoid capture. She was booked into Miami-Dade jail Friday morning without bond. The investigation is ongoing.
"Every incident of alleged elder exploitation or abuse touches our heart and never fails to shock us. It seems particularly harder to understand when the alleged perpetrator of the exploitation is a daughter, or a son or another blood relative," State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said in a statement. "Too often, these abuses occur behind closed doors, out of the public’s eye. We, here in MiamiDade County, utilizing all the resources of my State Attorney’s Office Elder Exploitation Task Force and the Miami-Dade Police Department, will not allow these transgressions to go unnoticed and unpunished. Not in our community."