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Being Present
The Caregiver’s Game is a gripping memoir and investigative true story surrounding your mother’s dementia and manipulation by caretakers that exposes the hidden realities of elder financial abuse. What first made you realize something was wrong with your mother’s situation?
The first sign I wasn’t aware of. When my mother told my sister she had a “new friend.” I blew it off. However, that seems to be a very common remark made at the beginning of these situations. I went to visit about 4 weeks after that remark. My mother’s refrigerator was stuffed. I knew that was wrong, but not living in town I couldn’t do anything about it. I just assumed the caregiver was just over-buying. I looked at my mother to ask for receipts but she said nothing. I figured, how bad could it be? That was March 2018. I visited again in Sept 2018. Nothing seemed different from my last visit.
My sister visited in Jun 2019 and told me mother was not doing well, but was acting in denial. We pushed for a doctor’s capacity determination. When that was delivered and showed my mother did not have the capacity for financial decisions, we figured that would cover any issues. Then, 10 days later, we were removed from the Medical POA. That’s when we suspected a bigger issue, but again, never thinking it was going to be this bad.
How did you begin reconstructing the financial trail?
I started about 3 weeks after my mother passed away. We found out about the new will and the annuity for the caregiver a week after her death. I was in shock. These things happen to other people, not us. Then I got mad.
I started trying to log into her broker account. I had the password previously. That had been changed, but I knew the security questions and had her old phone, which had her email account. This allowed me to fetch the bank code to set up a new password.
Once into the account, I started reconstructing the statements and pulling check copies. I wanted to see how much the caregiver was really getting paid. I also wanted to see if there were any patterns or locations that were different from where my mother would normally visit. I used a couple of reporting tools to visualize and map the shopping habits.
Next, I pulled her credit report from the Lifelock app on her phone. That’s when I saw the new department store credit card. I asked the CPA about it, and he knew nothing of it.
What are the most common warning signs families miss, and what is the single most important preventive step families can take?
I mentioned above. The person tells their family they have a new friend. Others are seeing the caregiver answering for the patient or not being able to get a hold of the person.
The most important preventive is being present in the home on a regular basis. This is what the neighbor’s daughter did. She was there every day at different times. She even set up cameras around the condo to monitor. This constant monitoring drove the caregiver to find another victim in the building.
What would you change about elder protection systems?
The process of obtaining a Guardianship needs to be reviewed. Each county can have a different experience. The one my mother was living in was known for not agreeing to them. Others nearby were easier.
The challenge is that once you are granted a Guardianship, you can make the relative very mad, and they will then remove you from the will or estate.
It was suggested to me by a probate attorney that if you see this situation going on, do not attempt a Guardianship, but just wait until they pass and address it then.
There should be a resource like FINRA.org that monitors the financial industry workers, like brokers. A centralized place to report caregivers for incidents like being removed from the caregiving agency for bad behavior. Background checks only scratch the surface, depending on what your request.
The other challenge is that most of the reporting is done by front-line workers or those within the Adult Protective Services. These resources are only as good as they are trained or the tools available to them.
Author Links: GoodReads | Amazon
The credit card charges didn’t make sense. Groceries seven times the national average for a woman who never topped 105 pounds. Hundreds at Sam’s Club five days before she died while she was housebound in assisted living, barely eating, her apartment nearly empty. The caregiver had an answer for everything. So did the lawyer. So did the bank.
Then the caregiver died. Or disappeared.
The body was the wrong weight. Seventy pounds too heavy at cremation. No obituary. No funeral. No daughters on the death certificate. A death at a hospital an hour from home, one she’d visited months earlier, driving past three closer ones to get there.
Eight days earlier, Charles Wallace had blocked a $250,000 annuity payout, the last big payday from his mother’s estate.
It started simply enough. A caregiver knocked on Joell Fleming’s door with bagels and a smile. The 78-year-old widow — sharp-tongued, fiercely independent, survivor of five marriages, let a predator inside.
Esmarelda Gomez sat in the room when the neurologist scored Joell 16 out of 30 on cognitive testing. She watched the diagnosis happen. Then the spending exploded. Within three years, nearly $1 million was gone. Children removed from medical power of attorney. A new will naming the caregiver for a six-figure annuity. Credit cards used at the caregiver’s home address twenty-five miles away the last charge the day after Joell died.
Doctors, lawyers, banks, and Adult Protective Services all missed it.
From 700 miles away, Charles Wallace spent five years pulling a decade of credit card records and building the forensic case the professionals never did. Cards that went from two declines in seven years to a 59% decline rate. Two cards cycled at the register within seconds of each other. A dual food supply prepared meals for his mother, bulk groceries for someone else’s household.
She’d done this before. An elderly man years earlier. Same playbook. Same attorney handling both victims across thirteen years. Fired from a caregiving agency for misusing client data, she kept working privately invisible to every system designed to stop her.
Then came the exit. A secluded house purchased before she emptied the storage unit. A U-Haul returned with 460 extra miles. Forty-three boxes never delivered to charity. A death at a remote hospital she’d established herself at months earlier. Eighteen months later, her executor quietly bought that house.
The Caregiver’s Game is a forensic true crime investigation and a warning for every family with an aging parent. It exposes how caregiver fraud hides in plain sight in the credit card statements no one checks, the groceries that don’t add up, the documents signed by someone who can’t understand them and it arms you with the warning signs before it’s too late.
If the charges on your parent’s credit card don’t make sense, this book will show you what to look for. And what happens when no one does.
Both a true crime investigation and a safeguard. For readers of Ann Rule and for every adult child who worries about a parent, especially the ones who think it could never happen to them.
Ethical Accountability
The Broken Gavel: A Sneak Peek is part memoir, part manifesto, and part legal dissection, sharing your story of betrayal, both personal and institutional, experiences with a trusted attorney who failed you, and a friend who used your private pain as creative capital. Why was this an important book for you to write?
The Broken Gavel: A Sneak Peek was born out of necessity, both personal and moral. I needed to reclaim my narrative after experiencing betrayal from trusted institutions and individuals who weaponized my vulnerability. Writing this book gave me the power to turn pain into purpose and silence into accountability. It became my way of transforming what was meant to destroy me into a movement for truth, justice, and self-restoration.
What were some ideas that were important for you to share in this book?
I wanted readers to understand that justice is not just a legal term; it’s a human experience. I focused on themes like ethical accountability, truth versus perception, and the emotional toll of fighting systems that have the power to silence victims. The Broken Gavel is a call to action for transparency, courage, and moral responsibility.
What was the hardest thing for you to write about?
The most difficult part was revisiting the emotional betrayal by people I once trusted deeply, particularly a friend who used my story for her own gain. It forced me to relive moments of pain, humiliation, and disbelief. But it also reminded me of the importance of integrity and emotional boundaries. Writing through that discomfort became an act of healing and reclamation.
How has writing your memoir impacted or changed your life?
This book completely redefined my sense of power and purpose. It helped me move from surviving injustice to leading with resilience. Writing The Broken Gavel taught me that storytelling is not just about catharsis, it’s about creating community and inspiring accountability. Since releasing it, I’ve connected with readers, educators, and advocates who see themselves in my story, which reinforces why I wrote it in the first place.
Author Links: GoodReads | Website | Amazon
Before the full memoir arrives in 2026, The Broken Gavel: A Sneak Peek pulls back the curtain on betrayal, power, and the fight for justice in a way you’ve never read before.
Dashawn Mayweather trusted the system and the people inside it, only to discover her divorce finalized without her knowledge and her most intimate secrets repackaged in a “friend’s” book. What begins as a private legal battle explodes into a story of survival, resilience, and the courage to speak when silence is no longer an option.
Blending raw memoir with sharp legal insight, this preview doesn’t just tell a story, it challenges readers to ask: What happens when the very institutions built to protect us become the ones that try to break us?
Part testimony. Part case study. 100% unforgettable.
This is not the whole book, it’s the spark. The fire is coming in 2026.
When the gavel breaks, the illusion of untouchable power shatters. And from those cracks, a movement begins.
Homicide in the Hood: Murders that Haunt a Small Town Girl
Kelli Martin’s Homicide in the Hood is a heartfelt and haunting exploration of unsolved murders in the seemingly quaint town of Granbury, Texas. Drawing on her personal experiences growing up there, Martin provides an emotional narrative about six specific cases that left an indelible mark on the community. The detailed accounts not only memorialize the victims but also call for justice and renewed attention to these cold cases.
What struck me most about Martin’s writing is her ability to weave personal anecdotes with meticulous research. She describes the murder of Lillian Peart, who was brutally shot in a convenience store for a mere $57. Her recounting of how this event shook her childhood innocence is raw and moving, making it easy to empathize with the fear and confusion she must have felt. The inclusion of small-town quirks, such as the community’s reliance on word-of-mouth gossip, adds an authentic charm to an otherwise grim subject matter. Martin’s knack for storytelling truly shines when she recounts how these murders affected her family and her career path. In the chapter on Holly Palmer’s murder near the sheriff’s department, Martin ties her personal memories of riding her bike past the location to a broader discussion of law enforcement’s struggles in solving these cases.
The contrast between her idyllic childhood memories and the brutal reality of these crimes adds an emotional depth that is hard to ignore. While the book is gripping, it’s also frustrating and that’s no fault of the author. Martin is transparent about the challenges law enforcement faced due to the lack of modern technology like DNA testing during the 1980s. For example, she discusses how suspects were identified but not prosecuted due to insufficient evidence, leaving readers with a sense of unresolved injustice. Her writing conveys not just the facts but also her palpable frustration and determination to bring attention to these cases.
I particularly appreciated Martin’s plea to humanize the victims. Her insistence that these women were more than statistics resonates strongly. In discussing Dorothy Sanders, who was stabbed over 100 times, Martin paints a vivid picture of the victim’s humanity and the ripple effects of her loss on the community. This level of compassion and advocacy is what makes the book stand out.
Homicide in the Hood is a compelling read for true crime enthusiasts, particularly those interested in cold cases and the intricacies of small-town dynamics. Martin’s passion for justice and her ability to connect the reader to her past create an engaging and thought-provoking narrative. This book is perfect for those looking to better understand the long-term impacts of unsolved crimes on families and communities. It left me both heartbroken and hopeful, a testament to Martin’s powerful storytelling.
Pages: 322 | ASIN : B0DMPTY2V9
