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Two women are held in insurance fraud case

By Andrew Glazer, AP

Two women took out millions of dollars in life insurance on two homeless men who later died in mysterious hit-and-run crashes, and investigators want to know whether the women were behind the wheel.

Helen Golay, 75, and Olga Rutterschmidt, 72, were arrested and jailed Thursday on suspicion of fraud charges.

Police said the women alternately claimed to be a fiancee, close relative or business partner of the two men to secure insurance policies worth $4 million. They collected $2.2 million and sued other companies that wouldn't pay up.

Lt. Paul Vernon said authorities had the women under surveillance since last fall and arrested them this week for fear more homeless people were in danger. “We knew they were actively out there having contact with other people,” he said yesterday. “We felt we had . . . to take action to keep something worse from happening.”

Kenneth McDavid, 50, was run down in June, and Paul Vados, 73, was struck and killed in 1999. Both deaths occurred shortly after the two-year period the women had to wait to become eligible to collect the insurance money.

Detective Dennis Kilcoyne said authorities aren't sure who was driving when the men were killed and haven't ruled out the two women.

In court papers, the FBI said the women befriended McDavid and Vados and provided them with apartments in exchange for their signatures on life insurance policies.

The women then duplicated Vados' and McDavid's signatures on rubber stamps and used them to secure more than a dozen other policies, the FBI said.

McDavid's body was found in an alley. Prosecutors said that on the same day, Golay telephoned a towing service from a place near the alley. Vados also was found dead in an alley, and appeared to have been run over. Golay and Rutterschmidt claimed his body.

In court papers, authorities said that while the women were under surveillance, they were seen meeting with “elderly, frail-looking men” and directing them to sign documents.

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