After she skipped out on a scheduled mental evaluation, an arrest warrant was issued this week for a woman accused of bilking a Fayetteville man out of almost $300,000 while pretending to be country music star Alison Krauss.
Police are still seeking Sue Evers, 52, who was recently set to undergo a mental evaluation but did not show up, said David Bercaw, a deputy prosecuting attorney in Washington County.
Pending the results of her mental evaluation, the Edgewood, N.M., woman, who is out of jail on bond, was supposed to appear in Washington County Circuit Court on Oct. 8. She still is expected to appear on that date, Bercaw said.
Evers will forfeit her $10,000 bond after failing to appear for her mental evaluation, the prosecutor said.
Evers was arrested in June and pleaded not guilty to charges of abuse of an endangered or impaired person.
She was ordered by the Washington County Circuit Court to undergo a mental evaluation in the case after her defense said it would use mental disease or defect as a defense in the case, according to court documents.
Police said Evers convinced a 75-year-old local man she was Krauss. During the time of the alleged crime, the man’s bank account fell from $45,000 to $5,000, and he signed his $245,000 house over to Evers, according to an arrest warrant affidavit in Washington County Circuit Court.
Fayetteville police began investigating Evers in April when First Security Bank officials contacted investigators, concerned because their elderly customer Don Fulton withdrew several thousand dollars within a few months, the affidavit states. Fulton’s son told a detective his father had recently met a woman online who the father believed was Krauss. Fulton had recently married Evers, and the son thought she might be taking financial advantage of him, according to the affidavit.
Fulton later told police he believed Evers was Krauss and that she had changed her name to escape the paparazzi. He also said he signed his home over to Evers so that she could put it in Fulton’s son’s name.
Investigators also found out that Evers had changed Fulton’s will to give her his money in the event of his death, according to the arrest warrant affidavit. Evers gained control of Fulton’s home by alleging merit-less battery accusations against Fulton, police said.
