Palm Desert Caretaker Involved in Elder Abuse

Elder abuse, whether it happens in Palm Desert, California or really anywhere in the world, is always an extremely unfortunate and sad incident. The elderly depend on their caretakers, many times with their lives, to be responsible for supporting them with whatever issues they are experiencing.

In one of the latest cases of elder abuse, Palm Desert caretaker Marilyn Joy Zemek was accused of overdosing Pamelia Powell, 69, on seizure medication in order to steal the $200,000 from Pamelia’s bank account and gain control of her estate.

The death of Pamelia came after months of being in an altered, delusional state and many trips to the hospital. Due to her delusional state of mind caused by the medication phenobarbital, her caretaker Marilyn was able to sign Pamelia out of one of the medical facilities she was staying in against doctors advice.

About one week before Pamelia passed away she created a will and assigned power of attorney to her caretaker Marilyn, leaving all of her possessions and her entire estate to Marilyn.

After Pamelia passed Marilyn charged up almost $8,000 on Pamelia’s credit card. After the account was frozen Marilyn went as far as reopening the account pretending to be Pamelia. She also withdrew $201,634 from Pamelia’s estate in 3 cashiers checks. Talk about blinding greed!

Luckily this didn’t go unnoticed by the authorities and Marilyn Joy Zemek was taken into custody on June 12, 2018 by Indio Police. Marilyn may be facing the death penalty for charges including identity theft, murder, grand theft, elder abuse and perjury.

Marilyn is set to appear in a courtroom in Riverside, California to face these charges.