Tekoa man accused of stealing deceased mother’s benefits

A 74-year-old Tekoa man suspected of stealing his dead mother’s military widow benefits for years is facing a federal theft charge.

Robert E. Lee Jr. was booked into Spokane County Jail on Thursday and faces a potential charge of theft of government property over $1,000.

Federal investigators believe his mother had died, but are uncertain when or where.

A monthslong investigation began when a member of the Social Security Administration’s Office of the Inspector General conducted a routine check on a 100-year-old recipient of veterans benefits. The investigator tried to contact Minna A. Miller in July 2013 at her last known address in Orient, Washington, by phone and email with no success.

According to the agency’s records, Miller received more than $160,000 in benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs from 1977 to 2014. Her husband, Curtis Miller, died in 1977 and was buried in Little Rock, Arkansas, according to court records. Minna Miller asked to be buried beside him, but investigators learned in October that her body wasn’t there.

They traced checks drawn from the account where the VA funds were deposited to Lee, whose listed address was in Tekoa. None of the purchases on the account, made in and around Spokane, was for medical equipment or any other items to care for an elderly woman, according to investigators.

Federal authorities also started monitoring Lee’s address in Tekoa and learned he shared the residence with Tekoa City Councilwoman Eileen Soldwedel, according to court records.

Last week, investigators obtained a search warrant for Lee’s home. They also questioned him, according to court records, and Lee told them his mother was in Arizona and he hadn’t seen her for a year. He also claimed to know nothing of her finances, according to court records. When they confronted him with the information they’d learned from their investigation, Lee asked to have a lawyer.

During their search, authorities found a letter postmarked in 1987 from Arkansas, allegedly penned by Minna Miller. In that letter, she asks Lee to come quickly because she’s “on the last round.”

On Tuesday, Soldwedel’s attorney came to federal investigators with two letters sent to Soldwedel and postmarked the day after the search in Tekoa. The letters allegedly were penned by Lee, apologizing for the investigation and saying he intended to leave the country “with one of my outlaw buddies.”

The letters, allegedly written by Lee, said his mother had died during a trip to California and that he’d buried her “in a place I knew no one would ever dig up.” The author added that he is not “guilty of matricide.” The writer says he began forging her checks and accepting the monthly benefits as compensation for abuse he’d received as a child. The author also said he was dying of cancer and concluded by saying his real name was Hans Peter Ring.

Lee appeared in a lime green Spokane County Jail jumpsuit in federal court Friday afternoon. Evidence of an attempt to flee prompted the U.S. attorney’s office to ask that Lee remain in custody while release terms are determined.

“Generally, this is not the type of case we’d move for detention on,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Caitlin Baunsgard said Friday.

One of Lee’s neighbors reached by phone Thursday said she’d spoken with federal investigators and had been told not to discuss the case.