Last updated November 7, 2010 9:15 p.m. PT
A 49-year-old Seattle man is facing theft charges on allegations that he stole an elderly woman's life's treasures, including a doll collection worth more than $100,000.
Arriving at Kevin Lutton's Seattle home, King County sheriff's detectives investigating the loss of Catherine Spedden's collection found her former handyman's house packed with her prized possessions, according to charging documents.
Dozens of antique dolls adorned his room and hall, and dozens more had been hidden around the Madrona-neighborhood home, police contend. Asked to explain following the July 2009 raid, Lutton declined to do so because, he allegedly said, his own story kept changing.
In June 2009, the woman's nephew and trustee contacted the King County Sheriff's Office to report that dozens of the woman's collectible antique dolls -- her most valuable possessions -- gone missing.
Spedden had died in March 2009, and her family had set about inventorying the woman's possession. Describing the investigation in court documents, King County Detective Roberta Wilcox said the trustee told her he'd come to suspect Lutton, his aunt's handyman.
His aunt was a collector, he told police. She'd filled her Bothell home with trinkets and antiques collected around the world during her 95 years.
Though she had a houseboat on Lake Union as well, the woman had moved into an assisted living center in 2005 as her health began to fail. Lutton took care of her homes, the trustee said in court documents, and often brought her prized dolls to her apartment so she could show them to friends at the center.
Writing the court, Wilcox said she accompanied the trustee in July 2009 when he went to confront Lutton about the missing dolls. Dressed in street clothes, the detective was identified to Lutton as the trustee's cousin.
After initially denying that any dolls were missing, Lutton admitted that some were at his Seattle home after the trustee threatened to call the police, the detective told the court. They followed Lutton back to his home, which had been decorated with the Spedden's belongings.
"The entire home had been decorated with property belonging to Catherine E. Spedden," Wilcox told the court. "Dolls and glassware as well as framed artwork had been integrated into the home furnishings in both (Lutton's mother's) first floor living area and Kevin's second floor apartment. ?
"Kevin's computer was surrounded by at least 20 dolls."
About $87,475 worth of dolls -- identified in court documents as "bebes," "bisque fashion" and "bisque baby" -- were returned to the trustee, as were other items worth about $14,760, the detective said.
Armed with a search warrant, the police returned in force five days later to look for additional items.
In court documents, Wilcox said Lutton told her he'd found a "few" dolls after the trustee had left and was prepared to call the trustee so that they could be picked up.
Deputies searching the house recovered a large amount of Spedden's belongings from the bedroom of Lutton's mother, Wilcox said. Among the items were several books from the 1870s, which bore Spedden's great-great-grandfather's name.
Deputies recovered 33 additional dolls, valued at $53,000, as well as glassware and other items.
Between the earlier, voluntary surrender and the search, two moving trucks were filled with Spedden's belongings. All told, $200,397 worth of property was recovered from the home.
Asked to make a written statement, Lutton declined.
"I can't do that because I keep changing my story," Lutton said, according to the detective's account. "People may think I am trying to be deceptive."
Wilcox noted that Spedden had hired Lutton as a favor, and was longtime friends with his mother.
"Even though Kevin claimed to have respected and cared for Catherine, neither he nor his mother visited her in the week prior to her death," the detective told the court. "(Lutton's mother) and Kevin were both sent an invitation to Catherine's memorial. Neither responded to the invitation or attended the memorial."
Charged with first-degree theft, Lutton remains free pending the case's resolution. He is scheduled to be arraigned Nov. 16.
This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php
Five Filters featured article: Beyond Hiroshima - The Non-Reporting of Falluja's Cancer Catastrophe.
No comments:
Post a Comment