A Texas woman accused of stealing her father’s social security benefits while his remains were kept in a Lexington storage unit for more than 20 years pleaded guilty in court Thursday.
49-year-old Judith Maria Broughton faces up to ten years in prison after she pleaded guilty to stealing social security benefits payable to her dead father, Luther D. Broughton, who officialas say died in 1990.
Officials say Broughton admitted she kept her father’s retirement benefits from June 1990 until August 2011 – a total of $245,226.
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During the plea hearing, Broughton said her father died on or about June 5, 1990, and after his death, she leased a storage unit in his name at Econo Self Storage in Lexington, where his remains were found on Jan. 8, 2014.
Broughton continued to make monthly payments on the storage unit in her father’s name from June 1990 through March 2014.
Broughton also acknowledged, according to officials, that she obtained a joint checking account in her father’s name and had his social security benefits electronically deposited into the account.
When social security officials sought written verification that Broughton’s father was still living, she responded with false statements that he was still alive. Broughton admitted that by taking the monthly payments intended for her father, she stole money from the United States and converted those funds to her own use.
Prior to her arrest, Broughton had been living with her mother, Mary Elizabeth Broughton, in Brewster County, Texas. Mary Elizabeth Broughton has been missing since January. In June, officials went to the home where mother and daughter lived searching for clues as to where Mary Elizabeth could be.
Crews used cadaver dogs looking for the 80-year-old mother but the search turned up nothing.
Mary Elizabeth Broughton also was a beneficiary of social security payments and those benefits were deposited in a joint account with her daughter through the Fort Davis State Bank, officials said.
“We’re very suspicious of her disappearance. Not that she, you know, was hurt or harmed, but maybe her body was disposed of,” said Brewster County Sheriff Ronnie Dodson.
No sentencing date has been scheduled.
