SPOKANE VALLEY, Wash. — Spokane County Sheriff’s Office detectives arrested a woman for using a man’s stolen debit and credit cards after he died in a motorcycle crash, according to a search warrant.
Diane H. Manns was arrested Thursday afternoon on three counts of second-degree identity theft, second-degree possession of stolen property and possession of a controlled substance-methamphetamine.
Court documents say on Aug. 2, Michael Troyer, 69, was killed when he struck a deer on his motorcycle near the intersection of North Argonne Road and North Bruce Road.
The Spokane County Sheriff's Office said in a press release that the deer jumped out in front of Troyer and he had little to no time to avoid the crash.
Investigators said several witnesses called 911 to report the crash. A press release from the sheriff’s office said a caller notified 911 that people had stopped to help Troyer and started CPR. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
When investigators tried to find Troyer’s wallet, they were unable to, according to the search warrant. A detective did locate a broken chain attached to Troyer’s belt, where a wallet most likely had been chained, documents say. The wallet was not found the next day during daylight hours, according to a press release from Spokane County Sheriff's Corporal Mark Gregory.
Troyer’s daughter later contacted detectives to tell them the joint bank account she shared with her father had been fraudulently accessed with his VISA debit card from Aug. 2 to Aug. 18, documents say. She said the total loss of money was $874.46, according to documents. Gregory said some of the transactions were made within an hour after the crash.
Documents say there were five purchase authorizations to Square and four other transaction attempts to Cash App in the amounts of $100 and $20.
Through the investigation, Gregory said detectives were able to locate Manns at a home on West Boone Avenue and was taken into custody.
During an interview, Gregory said she admitted to using the stolen card but didn't know it was stolen. She said the card was given to her by someone but she didn't want to identify them out of fear for her life.
Manns was booked into the Spokane County Jail.
