Mazeppa woman accused of stealing more than $178K from senior’s accounts

(ABC 6 News) – A Mazeppa woman faces felony charges after allegedly taking more than $178,000 from a senior woman’s bank accounts over six years.

Daphne Jo Castillo faces 10 felony charges of financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult–deprive of resources for benefit of someone else; as well as one count of felony issuing a dishonored check.

She appeared in Olmsted County Court Thursday, Jan. 16.

In June 2024, the Olmsted County Sheriff’s Office began looking into an adult protection case, after the senior woman’s memory care facility reported that she owed nearly $30,000 for her care, and a recent check for $10,500 had bounced.

The account the bounced check came from was managed by Castillo, according to court documents.

The OCSO looked through the senior’s bank accounts and found many “suspicious transactions,” including cash withdrawals.

According to court documents, Castillo allegedly told investigators she knew she hadn’t been given the authority to gift herself money from the woman’s accounts when she became Power Of Attorney, but she had withdrawn at least $78,000 for a truck she’d purchased.

That $78,000 was not included in a lump sum, in the OCSO’s accounting of the suspicious transactions below.

Beginning in July of 2019, investigators discovered the following discrepancies, totaling $178,643.16:

• Between July 1, 2019 and December 31, 2019, Castillo withdrew $16,403.34 from Victim’s account.
• Between January 1, 2020 and June 30, 2020, Castillo withdrew $9,222.58 from Victim’s account.
• Between July 1, 2020 and December 31, 2020, Castillo withdrew $18,866.67 from Victim’s account.
• Between January 1, 2021 and June 30, 2021, Castillo withdrew $9,932.53 from Victim’s account.
• Between July 1, 2021 and December 31, 2021, Castillo withdrew $5,247.58 from Victim’s account.
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• Between January 1, 2022 and June 30, 2022, Castillo withdrew $3,047.18 from Victim’s account.
• Between July 1, 2022 and December 31, 2022, Castillo withdrew $9,518.34 from Victim’s account.
• Between January 1, 2023 and June 30, 2023, Castillo withdrew $19,024.77 from Victim’s account.
• Between July 1, 2023 and December 31, 2023, Castillo withdrew $42,772.89 from Victim’s account.
• Between January 1, 2024 and June 30, 2024, Castillo withdrew $44,607.28 from Victim’s account.

Castillo is scheduled to appear again in court Oct. 14 for a pretrial hearing.