21-05-2025
Police: Couple withdrew funds from missing disabled adult
ELKHART — An Elkhart couple is accused of spending thousands of dollars belonging to a mentally disabled woman around the time she was reported missing.
Debra Collins and Loni Collins are each charged with a count of fraud as a Level 5 felony for allegedly spending money out of an account meant to pay for the care of a 68-year-old special needs adult. They are also charged with theft as a Level 6 felony.
Warrants for their arrest were issued May 9 with bond set at $50,000 each.
According to court documents:
The victim was reported missing on March 10 and the Elkhart Police Department issued an alert seeking information on April 30. An investigator with Adult Protective Services also began looking into her disappearance.
Debra Collins had been granted permanent guardianship of the victim in 2010 due to the woman's mental disabilities. Collins was ordered to obtain court approval before spending more than $1,500 of the victim's money or to move house, according to the APS investigator.
Debra Collins opened a representative payee account at a bank in August 2020 to deposit the victim's Social Security payments and cover her expenses. The victim was placed in a group home in October 2021 but Collins removed her in July 2022, according to the investigator.
The investigator obtained bank records from the start of January to the end of March allegedly showing that Debra Collins withdrew $2,959 from the woman's account and transferred it to an account owned by her husband. The money was allegedly spent at Amazon, Kroger, Walmart and other internet-based vendors.
No payments were made to care facilities, group homes or other services that would be connected to the victim, according to the investigator.
Loni Collins was questioned and allegedly told investigators that he had not seen the victim in over a year and didn't know where she was living. Debra Collins also allegedly told a bank representative in April that she didn't know where the victim was, after the bank froze the representative payee account.
Another witness was interviewed and said that Debra Collins claimed she moved the victim to a different group home, but would not give any further information when asked, according to the investigation.
