Latest / Best of: Features / A California foster mom with cancer vanished. Now her foster son is in custody.

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A California foster mom with cancer vanished. Now her foster son is in custody. · Best of: Features

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  A California foster mom with cancer vanished. Now her foster son is
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  in custody. Written by Katie Dowd This
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  article is being read by an automated voice generated by Everlet. A
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  California attorney's adult foster son is in custody on suspicion of killing
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  her in order to get control of her estate. This is a
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  case of deadly greed, San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stefan said
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  at a news conference last week. LA County family law attorney Nadine
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  Jett, sixty four, was diagnosed with cancer in august twenty twenty three.
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  When she learned she would have to undergo chemotherapy, one of her
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  foster children, Cedric Von
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  Ferdinand volunteered to move back into her Valley Center home. According to
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  Stefan, it was not the caring act of a worried family member.
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  Instead, she said it was the first of a series of calculated
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  moves to take over Jett's finances. Not long after her treatment began,
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  investigators say Von Ferdinand began telling friends and family that Jett prognosis
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  was grim. He allegedly said his foster mother wanted to go to
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  Mexico for a second opinion, and that when she died she wanted
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  to be cremated without a funeral service. On January fourteenth, twenty twenty-four,
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  Jett left a chemotherapy appointment and went home. Three days later, von
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  Ferdinand allegedly called Jett's caretaker to tell them Jett had died. He
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  also called Jett's doctors and cancelled all future appointments, Stefan said. When
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  Jett's other family members spoke with Von Ferdinand, he allegedly told them
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  Jett’s had died in Mexico. But of course they began to smell
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  a rat, Stefan said. Loved ones apparently pressed for a death certificate,
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  but none was produced. In june twenty twenty four several of Jett's
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  foster children reported her missing. Not long after they also reported suspicious
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  real estate transactions, including von Ferdinand's attempts to take possession of all
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  three of Jett's residential properties, Stefan said. Investigators said the learned Von
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  Ferdinand had paid someone to dig a six foot by six foot
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  hole on the Valley Center property, and when they excavated the yard
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  they located partially mummified remains in a makeshift grave. Stefan said Jett's
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  body had been wrapped in a bed sheet, and an autopsy found
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  she died of a massive overdose of fentanyl. Stefan said the chemical
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  makeup of the fentanyl indicated it was illegal, not manufactured in a
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  pharmaceutical setting. As the investigation continued, a search warrant was served at
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  Von Ferdinand's Gardena home. There, Stefan said detectives found a marriage license
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  for Jett and von Ferdinand issued in may twenty twenty for months
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  after Jett is believed to have died. Stefan said a woman who
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  is known to von Ferdinand impersonated Jett to help him obtain the
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  license. On october twentieth, Von Ferdinand thirty four was arrested on suspicion
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  of first degree murder, with two special circumstances of murder for financial
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  gain and administering poison. He is also facing charges related to theft,
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  forgery, and filing false documents. He is not eligible for bail as
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  he awaits his next court hearing. This is one of the most
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  despicable acts someone can commit against a mother figure who gave the
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  best of herself to someone in need, Stefan said at Wednesday's press
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  conference. Also present at the press conference were two of Jett's foster
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  children, Tiffany and Bianca Lucci. The sisters are two of the four
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  quadruplets that Jette took into her home when they were children. She
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  was that mom we needed, Bianca Luci said. She gave us a
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  fair chance at life.