Social Worker Faces Charges as Woman, 90, Is Found Dead
NEW YORK — A social worker has been charged with stealing thousands of dollars from a 90-year-old woman whose badly decomposed body was found in her bedroom closet under a pile of clothing.
Renita Phifer, 35, was charged Friday with grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property, police said. She is also being questioned in the death of Anne Wolowitz, whose body was discovered Thursday.
Police said Phifer accompanied Wolowitz to a bank on June 13 to make a transaction on her account. When Wolowitz later noticed that $2,600 was missing from the account, she filed a grand-larceny complaint. Authorities tried to reach her regarding the complaint, police said.
Other transactions were made on Wolowitz’s account in September and October. Police believe Phifer stole some of the money by writing herself checks.
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