The sister of a man who has been in a group home for four years without an identity, appeared in court to face charges on Friday that she kept her brother’s Supplemental Security Income (SSI) checks.
Maurice Williams, 46, was found wandering the streets of Detroit in 2008. Maurice was developmentally disabled and did not speak much. Authorities ran his fingerprints but could not find a matched, so Maurice was placed in a group home and became known as John D108 Doe, reports the Detroit Free Press.
http://liarcatchers.com/missing_persons_investigations.html
Meanwhile, Janine Williams, Maurice’s sister was searching for her brother who was known to wander off. At first she wasn’t worried as the police always found him and brought him home according to the affidavit. Williams said she filed a missing-person report and called nursing homes looking for him.
Missing poster on tree
Missing poster on tree
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Williams even thought he may have been kidnapped and that maybe someone would try to get her brother’s SSI payments. She contacted Social Security officials in 2008 about the SSI payments but was told to wait to see if he came back.
“After six months had passed, I began to believe that someone was keeping my brother against his will and thought that I could catch them if they ever tried to apply for monies for him,” Williams said in her affidavit, “Eventually, my reasoning led to the continuation of SSI payments being paid to me on behalf of my brother.”
Williams who is accused of stealing more than $1,000 in payments said that she used some of the money to pay bills, and knew it was wrong but didn’t expect Maurice to be gone so long.
Finally in October 2012, the Free Press ran a story on Maurice, after his care taker contacted them about Maurice. Kathleen White-Montgomery said she spent years looking over missing person websites trying to figure out who Maurice really was. When his family read the story that is when they realized where he had been all this time and came forward and identified themselves.
When Social Security officials found that Janine had received payments while her brother was missing they terminated her as he brother’s representative payee in October.
White-Montgomery is working toward transitioning Maurice back to his family, although she is apprehensive, reports USA Today on January 8. She said neither of Maurice’s sisters have called her since he was identified, even though her phone number appeared in the newspaper.
Maurice was at the court hearing for Janine and was seen hugging his cousin Olivia Williams.
