Detectives say they’ve solved the shocking murder of a 96-year-old Santa Barbara County woman.
"Violet Alberts was a vibrant 96-year-old widow, cherished in the Montecito community," said Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown.
The May, 2022 homicide rocked an upscale Montecito neighborhood.
A caretaker arrived to find Alberts dead in the bed of her Park Lane home. A broken window triggered concerns about foul play.
But, she was in her bed. Was her death more than it seemed?
"An autopsy conducted by the Coroner's Bureau pathologists unveiled the grim reality of Alberts death," said Brown. "The cause of her death was asphyxiation, and the manner of her death was determined to be homicide."
Their investigation led them to Paulene Macareno, who they say had tricked the financially struggling widow with a fraudulent reverse mortgage scheme.
Macareno was arrested in 2022, and been already been arrested and convicted of the financial fraud. The Sheriff announced three Los Angeles men were arrested in connection with Alberts murder.
Detectives arrested Harry Basmadjian of Van Nuys, Henry Rostomyan of Tujunga, and Ricardo MartinDelCampo of Los Angeles.
The Sheriff said this was one of the toughest cases to solve that he’s seen. Brown said his detectives alone put in more than 10,000 hours on the case, It also involved the Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office, the LAPD, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office, the Glendale Police Department, and the FBI. He says the public played a role, as people tried to identify a car which had been seen in the Montecito neighborhood.
Macareno is already serving a six year prison sentence for the financial fraud, but isn’t facing charges related to Alberts death yet. But, the Sheriff called the 48-year-old woman the mastermind behind the crimes.
One big question remains. If Macareno had swindled the 96-year-old woman out of ownership of her house already, why murder her?
"In the eyes of Paulene Macareno, Miss Alberts had lived too long," said the Sheriff.
After a news conference to announce the arrests, Sheriff Brown said this was never considered to be a cold case. He said even when it was in the news, detectives were always working on it.
Alberts moved to Santa Barbara County in the 1990’s from Beverly Hills, after her husband died. Detectives say one of the hardest things about the case is that aside from one very distant relative on the East Coast, Alberts had no living family.
When asked about her family, the Sheriff paused, and pointed to detectives who had worked to solve the case and he said we are her family.
