Rhonda Lynn Orr was written out of her aunt's estate in 2013. By the time the pandemic rolled around, she had turned up again in her aunt's life and taken charge of her care. Soon after, authorities say Orr drained at least $690,000 from her aunt's accounts.

Now, Orr is in jail facing charges of theft from a vulnerable adult. Her aunt is under the care of a court-appointed guardian.

In an interview from jail, Orr disputed the charges.

As Americans live longer, more are having to rely on family members or friends to handle their finances when they no longer can. It is a fraught situation and is fueling financial exploitation of the elderly, according to the National Council on Aging.

With people often left to the mercy of caretakers to act in their best interests, banks are often the front lines for ensuring there is no misuse of funds. More than half of states either mandate or permit financial institutions to flag any suspicious account activity to regulators or law enforcement, and states have been strengthening these laws.

But by the time law enforcement is notified, life savings could already be depleted.

In the case of Orr and her aunt, Mildred Callahan, the state of Arizona eventually intervened.

"If you've got your squad, it's a lot harder for this to happen," said Tom Asimou, a probate litigation lawyer who represents Camelback Fiduciary, the private guardian appointed by an Arizona court to care for Callahan and keep Orr away.

Callahan, a 92-year-old retired schoolteacher, is unable to participate in interviews because of her dementia, according to Asimou. Orr's alleged mishandling of her finances left Callahan facing a $312,000 tax bill.

In a June interview before her arrest, Orr said she stepped back into her aunt's life to help care for her. She said she grew up near Callahan, who had been "like a pseudo-mom to me."

"Their whole narrative is completely false," said Orr, 63. "I would do anything to make sure she was well cared for, but everything got turned around. It just all fell to pieces."

She said she is trying to find a lawyer to fight Camelback.

A break in the relationship

After her career as an elementary school teacher in Ohio, Callahan retired and moved to a senior community outside Phoenix in the 1990s. A family scrapbook Callahan has kept includes photos of Orr as well as a newspaper clipping showing Orr was a runner-up in a teenage pageant in Columbus.

Then at some point, there appears to have been a break in the relationship.

In 2013, Callahan created a living trust that names herself as trustee, and a cousin as the successor trustee and the primary beneficiary of her entire estate at her death.

Also included in the document: a provision specifically disinheriting Orr.

"RHONDA ORR, who may otherwise have been entitled to a portion of my Estate by operation of law, is specifically omitted from any portion or distribution from my estate," the provision states.

Court filings don't detail what prompted the move, but Orr said in the June interview that her aunt had been upset that she hadn't been around. "She has a thing with feeling abandoned," Orr said of that time in their lives, adding that later, "We figured it out."

Orr said she moved to Phoenix in 2012 and then nearer to Callahan in 2017. During the Covid pandemic, Orr said she hired caregivers for her aunt.

It was around this time that Arizona Adult Protective Services began getting alerts about Callahan. Some were from financial institutions flagging unusual transactions in her accounts.

The reports detail suspicious checks and transfers to Orr, a new credit card opened under Callahan's name, a withdrawal from Callahan's CD account, and a suspicious request to cash out an annuity. One report alleged that Orr impersonated Callahan to request a $200,000 transfer. Bank of America said it denied that request.

The bank said it filed multiple reports with Adult Protective Services and law enforcement agencies in Arizona and Georgia and prevented many suspicious transactions.

"Elder abuse is not only tragic but criminal, and we work closely with government and law enforcement and rely on them to hold perpetrators accountable," a Bank of America spokeswoman said.

Orr denied impersonating her aunt and said she made transfers to pay for Callahan's caregivers and for a move to Georgia. "There wasn't a decision that she wasn't completely agreeing on," she said.

Meanwhile, another report said a caregiver was owed $31,000 for services.

A member of the caregiver's family found Asimou, who specializes in these types of cases, to intervene, he said.

Asimou filed a petition in probate court in April 2024 for Camelback to take over Callahan's care. The court put Camelback in charge of Callahan's medical care and finances. Asimou said he and Camelback are being compensated with Callahan's funds.

Around this time, Asimou said Orr took Callahan to Georgia-a situation he called a "kidnapping," because Callahan couldn't consent to the move. Orr used $529,000 from Callahan's accounts to buy a house there in cash and title it to herself, according to court records. She said she put the house in her name because she said Callahan was in a rehab facility at the time.

By May 2024, the state issued a "substantiation report" that found a vulnerable adult had been exploited, a finding that can trigger a criminal prosecution. It found that Orr made transactions, including the home purchase, using no less than $694,000 of Callahan's money without Callahan's knowledge or permission. It recommended that Orr be placed on a perpetrator registry.

A $312,000 tax bill

Camelback was given the responsibility of gathering Callahan's assets and getting her situated in an appropriate care setting. That meant selling Callahan's Arizona home, getting a Georgia court order to evict Orr from the Georgia home and selling that, too, and arranging for Callahan to be medically evacuated back to Arizona.

Orr said she fought to remain her aunt's caretaker. In June 2024, she met with an elder law firm in Georgia to have new estate planning documents drawn up for her aunt. Callahan wasn't at that first meeting but attended a signing meeting, according to court records. Under the new plan, Orr was named trustee and the sole heir of a new family trust.

Camelback cried foul, and added the new estate documents to its list of matters to unwind.

In October 2024, in a civil proceeding, a court invalidated the deed to the Georgia house and voided the new estate planning documents, citing undue influence. It declared the 2013 trust valid, and entered a judgment against Orr for $529,000.

Callahan's life savings are dwindling. Camelback sold the Georgia house at a loss, and her new care facility costs $8,000 a month.

Orr had sold securities from Callahan's accounts and failed to file tax returns, leaving Callahan with unpaid taxes of $312,000, including late penalties, according to Asimou. Paying it could have put Callahan at risk of depleting her remaining funds, given the high cost of care, he said. She has a teacher's pension of $3,177 a month, plus Social Security.

In June, the Internal Revenue Service agreed to abate the penalties, reducing the bill to $237,000, and accepted a monthly installment plan with the balance due within 120 days of Callahan's passing.

Orr was taken into custody in Georgia in early August, and transferred on Thursday to jail in Arizona, where she is awaiting arraignment.

Callahan is now in a care facility back in Arizona. Her cousin, Renee Paige, 82, named in her 2013 trust, was at a recent online hearing where the court reviewed Callahan's annual finances.

Paige said in an interview that Callahan had a history of giving money to Orr. "She was in and out of her life a lot, and 'Billie' [Mildred] supported her because she said she was her only living relative."