Couple, living with corpse, charged with fraudulently collecting benefits
By Heidi Schmidt
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OVERLAND PARK, Kansas (KCTV) — Federal prosecutors charged an Overland Park couple 10 months after investigators found a body in their home.
Prosecutors said Lynn Ritter and Kirk Ritter, both 61, fraudulently collected more than $215,000 in retirement benefits. The benefits belonged to Lynn’s father, Mike Carroll. Court documents show Carroll’s monthly pension benefit could not be paid to anyone other than Carroll or a spouse.
Court documents said Carroll died in 2016 at the age of 81.
Prosecutors claim the Ritters moved into Carroll’s house in 2016. The Ritters allegedly continued to collect Carroll’s retirement benefits until March 2022, when Kirk called police to report the death of his father-in-law.
Court documents show police arrived at the house and found Carroll, lying in a bed in a “mummified state.”
The documents also show the Ritter’s transferred money, and wrote checks from Carroll’s bank account, even though they did not have the legal authority to do so.
In all, the Ritter’s are accused of collecting more than $215,000 in Social Security and retirement benefits.
The Ritters are scheduled to appear in federal court to face one count of wire fraud and two counts of theft of government funds on Feb. 2.
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