Judith P. Henderson, 231 Pennfield Ave., Lehigh Acres, was arrested Friday and charged with theft of $50,000 or more from persons 65 years or older and exploitation of the elderly $20,000-$100,000, according to Collier County Sheriff’s Office reports.
Henderson is charged with stealing multiple pieces of jewelry from an 86-year-old resident’s room at Bentley Village which she sold then to jewelry dealers in Lee County, detectives said.
CCSO detectives received a list of Bentley Village employees who had accessed the victim’s room during the time of the thefts. They linked Henderson, a certified nurse at the facility, to the thefts after researching local pawn records.
Their research showed that Henderson had sold multiple pieces of jewelry during July and August at several Lee County jewelry dealers, receiving $6,310. Further investigation revealed Henderson sold other jewelry during the course of 2011, receiving $13,682.
The jewelry she sold matched the description of the stolen jewelry, detectives said.
With assistance from Lee County detectives, CCSO detectives discovered that although the hold time had expired on the sale transactions, two of the jewelry pieces were still at a Lee County jewelry shop. One piece was a leaf-shaped gold broach with diamonds and the other was a gold and diamond circle pendant. The pieces were recovered and identified by the victim’s daughter as having been stolen.
Detectives interviewed Henderson at the sheriff’s North Naples substation on Friday. She was subsequently arrested on felony charges.
