(NEXSTAR) – A woman living on the streets of Astoria, Oregon died last year, unaware that she had nearly $900,000 sitting unclaimed under her name.
Cathy Boone died at a warming shelter in January 2020 at the age of 49, according to KGW News. She should have received the small fortune – her inheritance – after her mother Patricia Lupton died in 2016, but all attempts to find Boone failed.
An attorney and representative from her mother’s estate tried to track her down using Facebook messages, emails to family, employing a private investigator and placing ads in a local newspaper, according to the Portland news outlet.
“It just didn’t make any sense to me,” Jack Spithill, Boone’s father, told KGW. “That money was just sitting there, and she needed help in the worst way.”
Spithill said that Boone was suffering from drug and mental health issues. He added that her adult life had been rough, but “when she was good, she was really good.”
When her mother died, Boone relapsed into drug abuse, her father said. Lupton died “unexpectedly” at the age of 68, according to her obituary, which described Lupton as a “loving and supportive mother to her daughter.”
According to KGW, a judge in Clatsop County ruled in 2019 that the $884,407 in inheritance money be transferred to the Department of State Lands, which handles unclaimed property and estates.
The DSL transferred the money last October to a representative of Cathy Boone’s estate. Boone had two children and the estate is working to see if they might have a claim to the inheritance, according to KGW.
