Violet Evelyn Alberts was found dead in May 2022 at her Santa Barbara home. Investigators said they learned she was a victim of a murder-for-hire plot where the suspects wanted control of her multi-million dollar home. (Santa Barbara County Sheriff)
Cops in Santa Barbara, California, arrested four people in a murder-for-hire plot that took the life of a 96-year-old woman preparing to celebrate her upcoming birthday by baking cookies.
Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown at a press conference Thursday described the case as “tangled, evil web of financial exploitation against the victim,” Violet Evelyn Alberts. Her caregiver called deputies to her upscale Montecito home on May 27, 2022. Deputies found her dead in her bed with ingredients for her birthday cookies on the kitchen table. A window in her home had been shattered, they said. The medical examiner later determined cause of death to be asphyxiation.
At first, detectives were befuddled as to who would want to kill Alberts, whom Brown described as a “cherished figure” in her community. But investigators keyed in on 48-year-old Pauline Macareno after they learned that in 2020 she had “orchestrated fraud” to obtain control of Alberts multi-million dollar home and assets, Brown said. According to Brown, Alberts had ran out of money and someone referred Macareno to her to help. Macareno conducted a reverse mortgage scheme and also forged documents, Brown said.
Macareno allegedly had hoped that Alberts would die by natural means so she could take over the home. The problem? Alberts kept living.
“In the eyes of Pauline Macareno, Mrs. Alberts was living too long,” Brown said. “In other words Mrs. Alberts was 96 going on 97. I think the assumption was she would probably die quickly and then she would have obtained her home by fraudulent means. So the acceleration of her death was presumably the motivation.”
From left: Pauline Macareno, Henry Rostomyan and Henry Rostomyan are accused of taking part in a murder-for-hire scheme that took the life of 96-year-old Violet Evelyn Roberts at her home in Santa Barbara, California. A fourth suspect, Harry Basmadjian, is not pictured. (Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office)
Authorities say Macareno hired Harry Basmadjian, 58, Henry Rostomyan, 33, and Ricardo MartinDelCampo, 41, to carry out the murder. Detectives discovered that MartinDelCampo and Rostomyan conducted a “scouting trip” a couple days before the killing.
“This pivotal discovery shed light on the premeditated nature of the crime, underscoring the perpetrators’ calculated efforts to survey Alberts’s home and plan their vicious and reprehensible actions,” Brown said.
Macareno has already been convicted and sentenced to six years in prison for fraud in Alberts’ case, but is now is facing a solicit to commit murder charge. The other three suspects have been arrested in the last two months and are charged with murder and conspiracy to commit murder. While in federal custody on an unrelated charge, Basmadjian suffered a medical emergency and is essentially brain dead, Brown said.
Brown said Alberts didn’t have any family that lived nearby but was beloved by others in the community.
“Despite her age, she had remained active and engaged and she was known for her warm demeanor and social nature,” he said.
The suspects have a court hearting scheduled for March 14.
