MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) — A caregiver, hired to take care of a woman, is now accused of hiding the woman’s death and then stealing more than half a million dollars from her bank account.
Investigators said the caregiver even had the woman’s body cremated without her family’s permission.
Heather Carmichael, 48, is accused of stealing from 79-year-old Patricia Carberry.
Investigators said her arrest is a warning for families with older relatives.
“They isolate them to keep them away from other people, so that they should only trust them, that these are the only people who care about them,” Capt. John Schmitt with the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office said. “Which is why they’re there with them all the time.”
Capt. Schmitt said the sheriff’s office was first alerted to a possible problem when Carberry’s sister called.
She told investigators nobody had notified her that her sister had died, and when she got to her home a week after her death, she said the locks had been changed.
“She realized that Patricia’s vehicle had been taken, she noticed some credit cards were missing, and her cell phone,” Capt. Schmitt said. “She later found that Heather had made arrangements to transfer Patricia’s body to Port Arthur. She basically portrayed her to be Patricia’s daughter and was able to take her there and had arrangements for her to be cremated.”
Neighbors said Carberry died during the 2025 freeze.
Businesses were closed, and streets were difficult to get through.
“They discovered that Heather had basically withdrawn over $520,000 within a week after Patricia’s death. That money was transferred to her account,” Capt. Schmitt said.
ABC13 reached out to Carmichael on the phone, but she did not want to respond to any questions.
If found guilty, she faces anywhere from five to 99 years in prison.
This story comes from our news partner ABC13 Houston.