By Greg Grisolano

ggrisolano@joplinglobe.com

ARMA, Kan. — A woman says her 97-year-old aunt’s deteriorating mental health allowed another woman, who now is facing a state charge, to bilk the elderly woman out of more than $900,000.

“How they came to have as much control as they did, I have no idea,” said Tina Vanderelzen, whose aunt, Lena Zanichelli, of Arma, is alleged in court documents to have been bilked out of $923,897 by a 74-year-old woman who was acting as an unofficial caregiver.

“I think her mental capacity must have waned, and they took advantage of that,” Vanderelzen said.

Ernestine E. Anselmi, 74, also of Arma, has been charged by the Kansas attorney general’s office with a felony count of mistreatment of a dependent adult. Anselmi was arrested last week by Crawford County sheriff’s deputies and posted a $50,000 bond on the charge.

A spokeswoman for Attorney General Stephen Six’s office on Wednesday said Anselmi and her husband, Ernest “Sonny” Anselmi, had been acting as “unofficial guardians” for Zanichelli since at least May of this year. The charge alleges that Ernestine Anselmi used “undue influence, coercion, deception, and false representation” to make payments to herself and others on her behalf from funds that belonged to Zanichelli. The acts are alleged to have taken place from May 14 to Aug. 11 of this year.

Ashley Anstaett, spokeswoman for the attorney general, said some of Zanichelli’s assets were liquidated, but she could not specify whether those were property, stocks or bonds.

No charges have been filed against Ernest Anselmi.

Records from the Crawford County register of deeds office indicate that Zanichelli signed a transfer-on-death deed for her home over to the Anselmis on March 7, 2008. Her home at 505 E. View St. in Arma has a tax valuation of $97,500, according to office documents.

When reached at home for comment, Ernest Anselmi referred all questions to the couple’s attorney, Tim Fielder, of Girard. Fielder did not return a phone message Wednesday.

The register of deeds’ records also indicate that the Anselmis purchased 13 lots in the Abbott Coal Co. subdivision of northwest Crawford County in May and June of this year. The lots have an assessed valuation of about $41,000, and one lot includes a $30,000 home.

Vanderelzen, who lives in Waterford, Mich., said in a phone interview from the home in Arma that her aunt had resisted going to a nursing home for some time, preferring to live at home. Vanderelzen said she and her sister were given power of attorney for Zanichelli, who has no children of her own, in 2006.

“When we left, we put some things into place,” she said. “She had a will drawn up and an executor. She was able to do her bills and write out her checks. She was able to do for herself.”

Since then, Zanichelli’s health has begun to fail her, her niece said.

“Physically, she’s very frail,” she said. “Mentally, she has the onset of dementia. Some things are very clear to her, and other things she gets confused.”

Vanderelzen said she was aware that the Anselmis had been delivering hot lunches to her aunt for at least two years. She said she began to question the relationship in April, when Ernestine Anselmi started answering the phone at Zanichelli’s house.

From there, Vanderelzen said, the Anselmis began to isolate her aunt from other family members.

“It was kind of a fishy thing going on,” she said. “I’d call or my sister would call, and Ernestine would say, ‘Call back, she’s napping.’”

Vanderelzen said she was planning to visit her aunt last month in Arma, but she received a phone call from the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services stating that the agency had received a call on an elder-abuse hot line about Zanichelli’s situation. She said she did not know who had phoned the state hot line.

Vanderelzen said that when she arrived Aug. 30 at her aunt’s home, her aunt and Ernestine and Ernest Anselmi were at the house.

Vanderelzen said she did not believe her aunt had been physically abused, but she questioned whether the couple were providing her aunt with 24-hour care as she said they contended.

“I don’t think they stayed here 24 hours a day like they said,” she said. “There were just TV dinners and frozen meals in the freezer. A box of cereal was just ripped open. It looked like Aunt Lena had torn it open as best she could to get to it.”





Emergency assistance



The attorney general’s office has appointed an emergency guardian and an emergency conservator for Lena Zanichelli to assist with sorting out her financial records.