A caregiver who spent nearly a year working in the Livonia home of 86-year-old Cynthia Dame was arrested Tuesday afternoon, accused of taking almost $24,000, including through repeated $500 ATM withdrawals and alleged unauthorized credit-card purchases. Dame says she didn’t discover the pattern for months because the mailed bank statements that would have revealed it kept disappearing.
According to ClickOnDetroit, the caregiver had worked for Dame since July 2025 and had earned the trust of Dame’s family over nearly a year before the alleged theft came to light. The caregiver has not been publicly named because she had not yet been formally charged as of Tuesday, though police said charges could come as early as Wednesday.
Dame told the outlet the caregiver took her ATM card from her wallet and withdrew money without her knowledge, and that she also believes the caregiver used her credit card for groceries and other unauthorized purchases. Dame’s family says they eventually uncovered a long string of daily $500 withdrawals, and they believe the scheme escalated over the past six months before it was caught.
A Pattern Hiding in Plain Sight
The caregiver, according to Dame, handled everyday tasks that built deep trust within the household — shopping, cooking, laundry, yard work, and even caring for Dame’s animals. That access is part of what made the alleged theft so painful for the family to process, and it illustrates a broader gap in Michigan’s oversight of home care: the state does not require licensing for non-medical home care agencies or private caregiving arrangements, according to Vitable Health, leaving families to rely on their own vetting rather than state oversight.
That regulatory reality contrasts with rules for licensed health facilities and home health agencies, which under Michigan law must run fingerprint-based state and FBI background checks on employees who have direct access to patients’ financial information and property, per the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs. Private, independently hired caregivers like the one accused in Dame’s case generally fall outside that screening requirement.
Police Vow Full Investigation
Eric Marcotte said the caregiver was arrested early Tuesday afternoon and that police would investigate the alleged crimes fully, describing the conduct as exploitation of elderly people. Dame’s family has said they believe the total stolen reached nearly $24,000.
The case also drew comment from Dame’s daughter, Constance Wisniewski, who said she interviewed the caregiver after a referral from a previous client for work in her mother’s home. Wisniewski said she had given the caregiver roughly $4,000 as a gift along with an extra $100 every week on top of her regular salary. Wisniewski said her sister discovered the unauthorized withdrawals while reviewing their linked bank accounts, and that the caregiver admitted to taking the money and said she would put it back.
A Longtime Home-Care Provider Reacts
Connie Kincer, who now provides care for Dame and owns Compassionate Heart Home Healthcare, has worked in the home-care industry for 34 years. She described the alleged theft as extremely cruel and said she hopes the former caregiver is not doing this to another family.
Cases like this one sit within a much larger statewide problem. Michigan’s Adult Protective Services received 57,504 referrals alleging abuse, neglect, or financial exploitation of vulnerable adults in Fiscal Year 2024, investigating 21,137 of those cases and substantiating 41 percent, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. State officials have estimated that more than 73,000 older Michigan adults experience abuse or exploitation annually, a concern serious enough that Attorney General Dana Nessel established a dedicated Elder Abuse Task Force in 2019 comprising more than 55 public and private organizations.
The scale of the problem isn’t limited to Michigan. A Financial Crimes Enforcement Network analysis found that financial institutions nationwide submitted reports involving roughly $27 billion in suspicious activity tied to elder financial exploitation between 2022 and 2023. In Livonia specifically, the stakes are especially high: residents 65 and older made up 21.5 percent of the city’s 95,535 total population as of the 2020 Census, according to the City of Livonia, one of the higher senior concentrations among major Wayne County municipalities.
What Charges Could Look Like
Under Michigan Penal Code MCL 750.174a, obtaining or using a vulnerable adult’s money or property valued between $20,000 and $50,000 through fraud, deceit, or unjust enrichment is a felony carrying up to 10 years in prison and fines of up to $15,000 or three times the amount stolen. Dame’s family believes the alleged theft escalated over the past six months. Separately, MCL 750.159i carries a maximum 20-year penalty.
