Arrests made after woman targeted in fraud scheme killed in murder-for-hire plot, officials say

SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, Calif. — Multiple people were arrested after a fraud scheme turned into a murder case when a 96-year-old woman was killed in Santa Barbara County, California.

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Pauline Macareno, 48; Harry Basmadjian, 58; Henry Rostomyan, 33; and Ricardo MartinDelCampo, 41, were arrested in connection with the murder of Violet Evelyn Alberts, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office said.

Alberts, 96, was found dead in her bed by a caretaker on May 27, 2022, in Montecito, according to CNN. An autopsy found that Alberts died from asphyxiation. Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said her manner of death was ruled a homicide.

Officials said that Albert’s death was part of a murder-for-hire plot that was set up by a woman who tried to target her for some financial crimes, KTLA reported.

The woman was identified as Macareno, according to the news outlet. Macareno posed as a real estate agent and had used fraudulent documents to get access to Alberts’ house and money, The Los Angeles Times reported. Once that scheme was in motion, Brown said that Macareno found that Alberts “was living too long.”

Basmadjian, Rostomyan and MartinDelCampo were contacted by Macareno to set up the murder, Brown said, according to the newspaper.

Rostomyan and MartinDelCampo were arrested in the suspected murder-for-hire plot, the Times reported. Basmadjian had a medical emergency in federal custody and was left “incapacitated” before he could be arrested, Brown said.

Macareno was arrested in June 2022 on suspicion of elder abuse and fraud. She was sentenced to six years in state prison in regard to the fraud involved in Alberts’ case, the sheriff’s office said, according to CNN. The Times reported that she may be facing additional charges.

“There a lot of people and allied agencies to thank today for the extraordinary police work that went into solving this case. The unwavering support and cooperation of allied agencies, including the Santa Barbara District Attorney’s Office, the Los Angeles Police Department, the Glendale Police Department, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the United States Marshals Service, were instrumental in this investigation’s success. But the acknowledgment and gratitude needs to be primarily focused on the diligent efforts of the Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Office detectives, whose collective dedication, determination and tenacity served to pursue truth and accountability for those responsible for Violet Albert’s murder,” Brown said.

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