A woman accused of bilking a Fayetteville man out of almost $300,000 while pretending to be country music star Alison Krauss has a court date set for tomorrow (Oct. 8) but is still a fugitive being sought by authorities.
Since last month police have been seeking Peggy Sue Evers, 52, who was recently set to undergo a mental evaluation but did not show up, said David Bercaw, a Washington County deputy prosecuting attorney.
An arrest warrant was issued for Evers after she skipped out on the scheduled Sept. 18 mental evaluation with licensed psychologist Cara Hartfield, according to court papers.
Pending the results of that September mental evaluation, Evers, who was out of jail on bond, was supposed to appear in Washington County Circuit Court on Tuesday, Oct. 8. Evers has been required to forfeit her $10,000 bond for missing the mental evaluation.
Evers still is expected to appear in court on Oct. 8, Bercaw said. If she does not show up for that court date, a felony charge of failure to appear will be filed against her, Bercaw said. That is a Class C felony punishable by three to 10 years in prison, he said.
Bercaw said Monday (Oct. 7) authorities in Northwest Arkansas, who suspect Evers is in New Mexico, have alerted law enforcement officials in that state. Evers’ hometown is listed in court documents as Edgewood, N.M.
Evers was arrested in June and pleaded not guilty to charges of abuse of an endangered or impaired person. (She is pictured below at her arraignment earlier this year before a magistrate at the Washington County Detention Center.)
She was ordered by the Washington County Circuit Court to undergo a mental evaluation in the case after her lawyers said they 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.
