BOULDER COUNTY, Colo. — A 26-year-old man and his 24-year-old wife were arrested for allegedly forging quit claim deeds to take possession of a man's homes.
Longmont Police (LPD) arrested Savuth and Yulisa Yin Wednesday afternoon after a two-month investigation.
According to arrest records, the case began on Sept. 14 when the Carroll-Lewellen Funeral Home in Longmont began getting several emails and calls from someone claiming to be related to a 77-year-old man who had been found dead in his home. The caller asked the funeral home to take the man and cremate him immediately, the arrest affidavit says. He lived alone, the affidavit says, and it is unknown who would have known he was dead and why that person did not call police directly, the affidavit says.
The funeral home became concerned about the calls and contacted police, the affidavit says. The redacted arrest affidavit said the unnamed dead man was a well-known real estate broker who owned seven properties, renting six out, at the time of his death.
On Oct. 29, one of the renters contacted LPD stating she had gotten phone calls from someone named Frederick Hampton, the affidavit says. Hampton told her he was now representing her dead landlord and said she needed to move out, the affidavit says.
The renter called the Boulder County Recorders Office to figure out who now owned the home she was renting, the affidavit says. She learned there were a number of quit claim deeds filed for her dead landlord's properties by a "Nathaniel Turner," the affidavit says.
The LPD officer who talked with the renter contacted several other renters of the deceased man's properties. They reported similar calls about being asked to move, the affidavit says.
The renter told police her landlord's actual representative had stopped by her home and told her he believed someone broke into the dead man's home because he was not able to find any of the leases or keys to the rental properties, and two vehicles' titles were missing, the affidavit says.
An LPD detective pulled copies of quit claim deeds on the dead man's properties, the affidavit says. For one property, valued at $376,000 by Zillow, a quit claim deed was filed on March 5 that transferred ownership from the landlord to Savuth Yin for zero dollars, the affidavit says. The deed was notarized by Samantha Smith and an ID number was given, the affidavit says.
The detective said she knew that notaries had to be registered with the state so she checked the state's website and found out Samantha Smith and the ID number were fake, the affidavit says. The detective also noted that the dead man's signature did not match previous signatures from documents she had been given by the dead man's ex-wife, the affidavit says.
A second quit claim deed was filed on March 23 that transferred ownership from Savuth back to the dead man, the affidavit states. The notary's name and ID number also came back as fakes, the affidavit states.
A third quit claim deed was prepared in the name of "Nathaniel Turner" on Aug. 22, the affidavit says. That deed transferred ownership of the home from the dead man to a redacted company, the affidavit says. The deed's notary again came back as a fake, the affidavit says.
The detective then checked the Secretary of State's website to get more information on the company that had taken ownership of the property, the affidavit says.
The company's listing named the person forming the company as Nathaniel Turner, the affidavit says. The company had also been formed on Oct. 5, which was after the man's death and after the quit claim deed had been filed, the affidavit says.
The affidavit then has six more examples of the dead man's properties being deeded over to Nathaniel Turner and the unnamed company. In all, the detective said, 14 forged quit claim deeds had been filed with the Boulder County Recorder's Office between March 5 to Oct. 9. The total value of the homes involved is approximately $2,875,000.
On Oct. 10, LPD served a search warrant at the home of Savuth and Yulisa Yin, the affidavit says. A notebook was found in the home and contained a checklist showing that the Yins were planning on getting passports, hiring an attorney to settle a civil suit, pay off debts, sell everything and move out and leave in two to three months, the affidavit says. An unknown make and model handgun, that had its serial number scratched off, was found in a primary bedroom nightstand drawer, the affidavit says.
Another page of the notebook was titled "Asylum", the affidavit says. That page listed countries such as "Cuba, Brazil, Cape Verde Islands, Venezuela, Ecuador and Costa Rica(maybe)", the affidavit says. In a separate column titled "no to these places", are the names of three other South American countries.
Savuth and Yulisa Yin are each being held in the Boulder County Detention Center on suspicion of:
- One count of theft - greater than or equal to $1 million
- Seven counts of forgery
- One count of theft from an at-risk adult
Savuth is also facing a possible charge of possession of a defaced firearm. Yulisa is facing a possible additional charge of defacing a firearm.
The affidavit states the landlord's cause of death still has not yet been determined and is under investigation.
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