COLLEYVILLE, Texas (AP) - A man was arrested in Florida for the Texas death of a 72-year-old housekeeper with a $1 million life insurance policy as part of a multistate investigation into a network of insurance scammers, Colleyville police said Thursday.
Bernard Gorman, 26, faces a murder warrant in the scam to collect the benefits, accused of planning and assisting his father in the killing of Anita Fox by driving the getaway car.
Fox was found slain Sept. 23 at a residence in the wealthy Fort Worth suburb where she worked.
Gorman was being held without bond Thursday, Polk County jail records show.
The arrest is the result of a months-long investigation launched by the U.S. District Attorney’s office in Columbia, South Carolina. Spokeswoman Beth Drake declined to comment.
The suspect’s father, Gerard Gorman, 48, died Jan. 22 near Houston of natural causes, according to police spokesman Robert Hinton. According to a police affidavit, the father, who allegedly paid $700 a month on the policy, fatally stabbed Fox.
Goman was among a group of individuals making payments on the policy, but the other names were redacted.
A pickup truck impounded when Bernard Gorman was arrested on a separate traffic violation was seen by a neighbor over several days near the house where the crime occurred, according to a police affidavit.
The neighbor told police that the day of the killing, the pickup quickly backed out of the street rather than drive around the cul-de-sac.
Cellphone towers tracked a cellphone and an iPad seized from Gorman from Houston to Colleyville and then back to an RV park near Houston.
A retrieved cellphone message sent from Gorman’s phone read, “Sorry I can’t talk me and him is in half murders.”
Gorman told police that the message referred to an argument with his father.
There were no immediate plans to extradite Gorman to Texas, Hinton said.
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