KLTV 7 News Tyler, Longview, Jacksonville |Phony heiress sunk 'claws' in Smith County men

Phony heiress sunk 'claws' in Smith County men

By Courtney Lane - bio | email
Posted by Ellen Krafve - bio | email

SMITH COUNTY, TX (KLTV) - Investigators said she has a dark and devious history of scamming others, especially men for whatever she wants. And she has more than 30 aliases so authorities don't even know her real name yet. The last alias she used was Juanetta Lacy.

The Smith County Sheriff's Department arrested her last Friday.

She has been lavishly living off other people's money, particularly single or divorced men. The Smith County Sheriff's Department said there may be more victims here in east Texas so they want you to take a hard look at this phony heiress.

"She has a law degree from Harvard, which nobody at Harvard has ever heard of her, said Lt. Tony Dana.  "She claims to be a doctor, she also claims to be an heir from the Ford Motor Company."

You name it and she has played the part. The con woman has a record in Florida, plus warrants out of Oklahoma, and Las Vegas, Nevada. And she has a wrap sheet like you wouldn't believe. Lieutenant Dana said they're running her finger prints to hopefully find out who this mysterious woman really is.

"Her file with us looks like a Sears catalog."

In Las Vegas, she had to pay back $80,000 she bilked from victims there.

"I look at how she's gotten away with this so many times over so many years, since the 1980s," said Las Vegas victim Debrina Swan.  "So, obviously she's learned how to work the legal system and she just walks away from it."

But how did she end up here? Lieutenant Dana said she met a Tyler man in Colorado then followed him here. And she had her claws in at least two Smith County men at the same time.

"She was able to charm them, just charm them to get what she wanted," said Lt. Dana.  "She's the type of person when she gets through playing her game or she starts running out of lies to tell, she packs up and moves on."

Dana said she was also arrested in Cherokee County. They apparently traced her expensive rental car with Vegas plates and said she paid for it with a stolen credit card.

They said it's a credit to Smith County Sheriff J.B. Smith and his department to follow their hunches and get her off the streets.

Now, the two Smith County victims are not filing charges because they just want to cut their losses and have her extradited. Lieutenant Dana said she will first go back to Oklahoma.

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