Background: The outside of the Bermuda Dunes Country Club in Bermuda Dunes, Calif., where Donald and Karen Whitaker were found dead in their home on May 15 (Google Maps). Inset: Karen and Donald Whitaker (Facebook).
A California woman was reportedly sending a scammer money for months before she and her husband were found dead in their home.
Karen Whitaker, 79, and Donald Whitaker, 80, were found dead of "traumatic injuries" on May 15 after deputies from the Riverside County Sheriff's Office responded to a call for a welfare check at the couple's home. The Whitakers lived in a residence at the Bermuda Dunes Country Club in Bermuda Dunes, California, an exclusive golfing community. Authorities did not provide specific details about the nature of their injuries but said they were investigating the couple's deaths as a homicide.
In the days following the grisly find, a friend of the couple spoke to the media and said that Karen Whitaker had reportedly been targeted by a scam. The friend told local ABC affiliate KESQ that Karen Whitaker believed she was communicating with actor Tom Selleck, and she had been sending him money for months.
Joy Miedecke, who was friends with the Whitakers, told KESQ that after Karen Whitaker wrote a post on Facebook about a friend who had died, someone found her phone number and started texting her. Whoever the person was, they reportedly told Karen Whitaker that they were Selleck, best known for his roles on "Magnum P.I." and "Blue Bloods."
Miedecke said the alleged scammer told Karen Whitaker that, as Selleck, they dated the woman she had been paying tribute to on Facebook, "and now we have something in common. And that started the whole thing."
Over the next few months, Karen Whitaker started sending the person gift cards in amounts of $80 to $800, then later thousands of dollars. Miedecke, along with members of the Whitakers' family, notified the sheriff's office and Adult Protective Services. But even after Karen Whitaker's credit cards were destroyed and her access to her bank account was limited, she reportedly found different ways to send money.
Miedecke told KESQ that they even found someone "who had a relationship with somebody that works for Tom Selleck go and talk to her and say, 'Tom Selleck does not do this.'" But she added, "It didn't matter. She couldn't stop believing it."
In an interview with local NBC affiliate KMIR, Miedecke said Donald Whitaker was "full of grief" when he found out about the alleged scam.
Police have not commented publicly about the alleged scam or if it has any connection with the Whitakers' deaths. No arrests have been made as of Thursday, and the Riverside County Sheriff's Office said anyone with information should contact Central Homicide Investigator Hood at (951) 955-2777 or Thermal Station Investigator Gutierrez at (760) 863-8990.
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