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Lottery scam led to NJ grandmother's suicide
by Tom Haydon Tuesday November 13, 2007, 10:00 AM
Andrew Mills/The Star-Ledger
A local police detective climbs down into the rocks where the body of a woman was discovered on the jetty, November 1.A Jamaica-based lottery scam promising a $2.5 million windfall cost Ann Mowle her entire life savings of $248,000 before the 72-year-old grandmother from Monroe decided she had enough.
Mowle donated her clothes to charity, left her beloved toy poodle Molly at a dog groomers and drove to Spring Lake on Oct. 31. A pair of fishermen found her body on the edge of a jetty at the Worthington Avenue beach the next day. Investigators determined Mowle's death was a suicide.
Mowle's family blames the vicious year-long con for the path to despair that ended on that Spring Lake beach.
The money she had set aside to travel in her retirement and help her grandchildren with college costs was gone. Attempts to recover the funds with the help of authorities only led to embarrassment. In Mowle's final months, she became a recluse -- too afraid to leave her apartment and miss the phone call that would finally provide a return of her lost money.
"You're not talking about a gullible person," said her daughter JoAnn Trivisonno, of Virginia. "You're taking about a fearless woman. If this could happen to her, it could happen to anyone."
Mowle, a college graduate who raised three children as a single working parent, received the first letter promising a $2.5 million jackpot in October 2006. To collect, she had to pay $18,000 in fees, which Mowle sent. From there, the scam spiraled out of control with a barrage of phone calls from the con-artists who duped her into sending more cash.
As a former bookkeeper at Princeton University, Mowle kept meticulous records of her year-long deception by the phony Jamaican lottery officials.
Mowle left the documents in a tidy stack on her dining room table in her apartment at the Rossmoor adult community before she left for the last time. The records detail more than 50 wire transfers ranging from $158 to $4,750 to addresses in Jamaica between October 2006 and June.
Despite the paper trail including names and phone numbers, investigators have had little luck in tracking down the scam-artists behind the ploy.
Read the full story in Tuesday's Star-Ledger.
Lottery scam led to NJ grandmother's suicide
by Tom Haydon Tuesday November 13, 2007, 10:00 AM
Andrew Mills/The Star-Ledger
A local police detective climbs down into the rocks where the body of a woman was discovered on the jetty, November 1.A Jamaica-based lottery scam promising a $2.5 million windfall cost Ann Mowle her entire life savings of $248,000 before the 72-year-old grandmother from Monroe decided she had enough.
Mowle donated her clothes to charity, left her beloved toy poodle Molly at a dog groomers and drove to Spring Lake on Oct. 31. A pair of fishermen found her body on the edge of a jetty at the Worthington Avenue beach the next day. Investigators determined Mowle's death was a suicide.
Mowle's family blames the vicious year-long con for the path to despair that ended on that Spring Lake beach.
The money she had set aside to travel in her retirement and help her grandchildren with college costs was gone. Attempts to recover the funds with the help of authorities only led to embarrassment. In Mowle's final months, she became a recluse -- too afraid to leave her apartment and miss the phone call that would finally provide a return of her lost money.
"You're not talking about a gullible person," said her daughter JoAnn Trivisonno, of Virginia. "You're taking about a fearless woman. If this could happen to her, it could happen to anyone."
Mowle, a college graduate who raised three children as a single working parent, received the first letter promising a $2.5 million jackpot in October 2006. To collect, she had to pay $18,000 in fees, which Mowle sent. From there, the scam spiraled out of control with a barrage of phone calls from the con-artists who duped her into sending more cash.
As a former bookkeeper at Princeton University, Mowle kept meticulous records of her year-long deception by the phony Jamaican lottery officials.
Mowle left the documents in a tidy stack on her dining room table in her apartment at the Rossmoor adult community before she left for the last time. The records detail more than 50 wire transfers ranging from $158 to $4,750 to addresses in Jamaica between October 2006 and June.
Despite the paper trail including names and phone numbers, investigators have had little luck in tracking down the scam-artists behind the ploy.
Read the full story in Tuesday's Star-Ledger.
Now, if ongle that woman was as Smart as you, she might still be alive.
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