Oklahoma City Woman Victim of Identity Theft 2 Weeks After Her Death

Oklahoma City Police are investigating after a woman’s identity was stolen after she died.  Now it turns out she might not be the only victim in this case. 

67-year-old Linda Longacre died February 28.  A couple weeks later, a check was written from her account. 

Jay Longacre still reaches for the phone to share news with his mother. Then he remembers she’s gone. 

“I would call her every couple of days and just bring her up to date with my life and my kids and all that kind of stuff.  And I catch myself.  I can't do that anymore," Longacre said.

While his family was settling Linda Longacre’s affairs, a deposited check came in for $275, paid to Linda Whitwell for Housecleaning services.  Jay says he doesn’t know Whitwell, but he knows his mother never hired anyone to clean her house, and he certainly knows she didn’t write a check two weeks after she died. 

"It's a big slap in the face.  My sister was watching, and she saw it come through and sent me a picture of it and it's just wham," Longacre said.

Our News 9 crew tracked down Whitwell and confronted her. 

"I didn't receive this check.” Whitwell insisted.

News 9’s Aaron Brilbeck asked Whitwell to sign her name to compare it to the signature endorsing the check.  It wasn’t even close.

"You’re the first time I've heard of this.  You can check my bank.  I’ve never put that much money in.  I'm on social security." Whitwell said.

Jay Longacre wants whoever is responsible to know how much pain they’ve put his family through.

"We have to go to several different banks and try to get answers. We have to go to file charges to try to get answers.  We just want answers," said Longacre. "You don't have to do this. I mean living like this there's a thing called karma."

News 9 notified authorities of the matter. They are now looking into whether Whitwell is also a victim of identity theft.