Elaborate Insurance Scam Ends in Housekeeper's Death

Cops: Dad, son planned murder of Anita Fox, 72
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 19, 2015 3:35 PM CST

A father and son in Texas committed the ultimate crime of "greed," police tell NBC DFW. Cops say Gerard Gorman, 48, and his son Bernard Gorman, 27, allegedly followed 72-year-old housekeeper Anita Fox on her rounds for a few days last September, then murdered her in her employer's home to collect on a seven-figure life insurance policy—a policy she apparently didn't know about. Fox was found dead of stab wounds and other trauma in the entryway of the Colleyville house by another employee who had come to water the plants, WFAA reports; the homeowners were not present. Someone reportedly took out the policy on Fox (it's not clear yet who exactly is suspected of doing that), and Gerard Gorman was indicated in court records to have been the one keeping the policy up, NBC notes.

Cops say the duo reportedly followed Fox around to learn her habits, and on the day they decided to carry out the murder, Gerard Gorman went into the house after her while his son waited in the car, per police records. "I've been doing this now for over 27 years … and this [is] one of the most complex cases I have ever been involved in," Michael Holder, the chief of police, tells WFAA. Only one of the suspects will have to face the felony murder charges, though: Gerard Gorman was found dead in Houston last month of natural causes, the station notes; Bernard Gorman was arrested yesterday in Florida. But someone else might have to pay the piper, too, if a police investigation turns up anything suspicious: the insurance agent who sold the policy taken out on Fox. (An "extravagant" Pennsylvania family was accused of $20 million in insurance fraud.)

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