Woman Targeted The Vulnerable, Forged Wills, Dismembered A Victim: DOJ

LOS ANGELES, CA — A West Hills woman was sentenced to 20 years behind bars for her role in a bizarre $3.9 million scheme to take over the estates of vulnerable strangers by moving in, forging their wills and, in one case, dismembering and disposing of a victim and hiring an actor to impersonate him for police investigators, according to authorities.

Caroline Herrling, 44, also known as Carrie Phenix, was sentenced this month by U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong, who also ordered the defendant to pay $3.88 million in restitution, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Herrling pleaded guilty last year in downtown Los Angeles to a federal charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

"This defendant's misconduct was both greedy and grotesque, causing profound pain to the victims and their loved ones," U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said in a statement. "There must be serious consequences for those who prey on vulnerable communities, such as older adults, and my office will remain steadfast in bringing these offenders to justice."

Prosecutors said Herrling and her accomplices sought out vulnerable victims by searching for properties in affluent neighborhoods that appeared unkempt, in hopes of finding incapacitated individuals unable to care for their homes. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Herrling would use online mapping programs and search upscale neighborhoods for homes with algae-filled swimming pools or overgrown shrubs.

In 2020, she found such a home in Sherman Oaks, and she and her associates broke into the residence, where an older man lived. But at some point in September 2020, the man died from still-unknown causes, and prosecutors said Herrling and others took over the property and looted the man's assets while his body was decomposing in the home.

Herrling used a forged power-of-attorney form to steal his real estate and financial accounts, prosecutors said.

In October 2021, neighbors reported the man — 71-year-old Charles Wilding — missing, and police began investigating. When they contacted Herrling, she told officers she was a close friend of Wilding and his family, and falsely told them Wilding had moved to Carpinteria.

"At the time, she claimed that Charles Wilding had moved temporarily to the City Carpinteria; in fact he appears to be dead, but his body has not been found," Los Angeles Police Department Detective Mark O’Donnel in the court affidavit. "

At that point, prosecutors said, Herrling and her co-conspirators decided they needed to dispose of Wilding's body. First they moved it to her apartment in West Los Angeles, where they attempted unsuccessfully to dissolve the body with chemicals. When that failed, Herrling and others dismembered the body, placed the pieces in vacuum-sealed bags and moved the body to the Bay Area, prosecutors said.

Investigators determined that body parts were dumped into San Francisco Bay, with the help of a conspirator who owned a sailboat, prosecutors said. The remains have never been found.

Then Herrling hired a man to pose as Wilding through a series of phone calls and an-in person interview to throw a social worker and detectives off the scent, according to the affidavit.

"She paid (the impersonator) $5000 and texted him a “script” on what to say," according to O’Donnel.

The scheme unraveled when the impersonator confessed to police under questioning.

During Friday's sentencing hearing, Frimpong said the victim was "a man and a human being," but Herrling "did not see that" and instead treated him "like a cash register."

Prosecutors said the deceased victim was the listed executor and beneficiary to the will of another victim, but that document was also a forgery that Herrling claimed to have "discovered" in a safe deposit box rented by the deceased victim's mother. Based on that forged will, the missing victim was to inherit an estate worth more than $1.7 million -- assets that ultimately fell under Herrling's control as the phony trustee for his estate.

Herrling and her accomplices also defrauded a third victim and sold his home without his consent by using a conspirator with fake identity documents to pose as the victim, prosecutors said. Herrling set up accounts to receive the proceeds of the sale of that victim's real estate, a transaction that generated about $1.5 million. According to court documents, that victim, who was already suffering from mental health issues, killed himself after losing his home. Herrling later used the ill-gotten gains to purchase a home in West Hills, prosecutors said.

One of Herrling's associates -- Matthew Jason Kroth, 50, of Tarzana -- pleaded guilty in October to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine. He faces up to 20 years in federal prison for wire fraud, and up to 40 years for methamphetamine trafficking when he is sentenced on June 7, prosecutors noted.

City News Service and Patch Staffer Paige Austin