Community Corner

Con Artists Prey on Family of Teen Who Died in Peru

Kyle Norton died in Peru last month after participating in a traditional ayahuasca ritual in which he drank a hallucinogenic tea.

A fast-talking woman pretending to need information about flea medicine for her dog stole an undisclosed amount of money for a memorial from a collection box at a Rohnert Park veterinary hospital Thursday.

The money in the cardboard tissue box decorated with construction paper and hearts was for the family of 18-year-old Kyle Nolan, who died after drinking a hallucinogenic tea while on a vision quest in Peru last month. Nolan's body remains in Peru as authorities investigate his death and immediate burial, allegedly to cover up the manner of his death.

On Thursday around 9:30 a.m. a woman who identified herself as Helen Burgess walked into Blue Sky Veterinary Hospital, which is owned by Nolan's mother, Ingeborg Oswald. The woman talked with Phylis Acornero, office manager at Blue Sky, for 30-40 minutes, Acornero said.

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The woman said she just moved to the area from Alaska and wanted to make an appointment for her dog, Acornero said. The woman also inquired about volunteering at the animal shelter in Rohnert Park and having two cats spayed, Acornero said. The woman noticed the collection box and said she sympathized with the family and Kyle Nolan's death.

"She told me her 21-year-old son died in a car crash," Acornero said. "She just kept talking and trying to distract me. I didn't want to leave her alone." Acornero gave the woman an appointment card on a clipboard to fill out for her dog's appointment on Friday. The address she gave turned out to be false, Acornero said. Toward the end of the lengthy conversation, the woman asked her for a brochure about a new flea medicine.

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"She said she was going to take the appointment card to her car. I turned my back and went 10 feet away to get the brochure. She saw the opportunity and I noticed the collection box was gone," Acornero said. The box had "tons of cash" and checks, some for $150 and $100, she said.

Acornero was in the process of setting up a memorial fund at a local bank this afternoon. The woman was described as 5 feet 4 inches tall with gray and brown hair, a weathered face and missing some of her top teeth.

"She told me she is going to be 55 next week," Acornero said. Rohnert Park police are hoping to spoil what otherwise could be a big birthday celebration, providing the woman was honest about her age. Lt. Jeff Taylor said everything the woman touched was collected for evidence and police hope to catch her when she or someone else tries to cash the checks that were in the memorial fund box.

Police are asking people to cancel any checks they put in the tissue box, Taylor said. Police canvassed the area, but there are no businesses there that have surveillance video cameras, Taylor said. Police unsuccessfully tried to recover fingerprints from the counter in the hospital.

"It was too porous," Taylor said.

The family's tragedy has continued in California not just with the theft of the memorial money, but by a scammer pretending to be a family member. On Wednesday, a con artist bilked the teen's grandmother in Los Angeles of $2,100 by pretending to be Kyle's brother Kevin, Acornero said. The male con artist said he was in jail and needed someone to wire money to post bail. "He said he didn't want to bother mom," Acornero said.

She said the grandmother complied and now is "devastated."

-Bay City News


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