Friday, May 07, 1999
Son guilty of taking missing man's checks
Police think dad died, lack proof
BY TANYA BRICKING
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Everything but the checks stopped in 1980 for Walter Dunson.
After three visits that year to University Hospital for a mild stroke, he saw no doctor, had no prescriptions filled, had no bank account, no driver's license, no library card, no voting record.
Nothing but his pension and Social Security checks.
That's the paper trail that led federal officials to his son.
Gary Adams, 42, was convicted Thursday in U.S. District Court on 25 counts of theft for stealing more than $21,000 in his father's monthly Social Security checks.
If his father is still alive, he will turn 100 in July.
Cincinnati police have Mr. Dunson listed as a missing person. But investigators say they think he's been dead a long time.
“No, we don't have a body,” said John DiPuccio, the assistant U.S. attorney prosecuting Mr. Dunson's son. “We don't know where he is.”
But circumstantial evidence led a jury to convict Mr. Adams on theft charges. He was acquitted on 25 counts of forgery.
He will be sentenced in about three months. The maximum penalty is up to 10 years in prison. Under court guidelines, Mr. Adams' sentence probably will be about one year, Mr. DiPuccio said.
Mr. Adams, his wife and his
federal public defender declined to comment. Mr. Adams posted bond and is home until his sentencing.
That home in Kennedy Heights is where the mystery began.
Last June 2 or 3, a letter from the Social Security Administration arrived at the pink-and-white Tudor in the 5700 block of Wyatt Ave.
It was from David Knoll, a Social Security field representative. Mr. Knoll was checking on his elderly clients. He wanted to verify that beneficiaries who were about to turn 98 or 99 were still alive. He wanted to meet Mr. Dunson in person.
Four days after Mr. Knoll mailed the letter, Mr. Adams reported his father missing.
Mr. Adams said his father disappeared that June 5, the afternoon they went shopping at Findlay Market in Over-the-Rhine.
Trouble was, when police checked out the story, it didn't pan out.
Officer Kathleen Sneed couldn't find any neighbors who had ever seen Mr. Dunson. Mr. Adams told her his father stayed inside and took walks before dawn because he didn't want to get in trouble with the landlord for having too many tenants. But the landlord testified there were no restrictions on how many people lived in the house.
A 30-member police recruit class and 15 other officers canvassed the neighborhood where he was reported missing, but they came up with nothing.
And the most recent picture police could find of Mr. Dunson, a retired foundry worker, was from 1973.
Bryan Byas, Mr. Adams' 23-year-old son, told police he didn't even know he had a grandfather named Walter Dunson. Mr. Byas testified that he had lived in the room that was supposed to be his grandfather's. He never saw the man.
Counsuella Duruisseau, Mr. Adams' mother-in-law, testified she knew Mr. Dunson and even watched him sometimes — back in 1978.
Nan McDonald knew him, too. They were members together at Calvary Baptist Church in Walnut Hills. The church's minister, his wife and other members also testified they remembered Mr. Dunson was an usher. But no one remembered seeing him for about 15 years.
Mr. Adams' defense was that the evidence against him was all circum stantial. But until more is known about what happened to his father, officials say that's what all the fuss is about.
“In most of these cases where they take funds after a person's death, you have a body,” Mr. DiPuccio said.
Unless a body is found, criminal charges are likely to end with the theft case, he said.
“This is very unusual,” said Lt. Steve Luebbe, who oversees about 125 adult missing person cases the city keeps open as unresolved.
Officers say what's sad is that Walter Dunson may never have had a proper burial.
Instead of a tombstone, the last place his name may be marked is a file folder on a missing person case marked unsolved.
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