Attorney General Catherine Hanaway announced that her office’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) has filed criminal charges against Rebecca Walker and Douglaz Walker, who received payment after submitting false time records to Medicaid for personal care services they did not actually provide. The Walkers, while claiming to be personal care attendants providing services such as dressing, meal preparation, and housekeeping to Rebecca’s parent, a Medicaid recipient, did not render services and left the victim in abhorrent, dangerous, and progressively worsening conditions. The Walkers intended to conceal that they were paid to “take care” of the victim. During the entire time that the Walkers claimed to have provided service to the victim, they falsely stated that the victim and the victim’s spouse were residing with them at a different address. One witness who saw the living conditions in the victim’s apartment said they “could not believe” that Douglaz provided services and questioned whether the Walkers ever entered the apartment to provide the victim with services.
On December 30, 2023, officers from the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department conducted a wellness check at the victim’s apartment. Police discovered the residence in deplorable conditions—including dog feces, trash, spoiled food, flies, and refuse—and found the victim on the bedroom floor, next to their deceased and decomposing spouse, incoherent and unable to ambulate. Emergency medical services transported the victim to Barnes-Jewish Center Hospital, where they died the following day. While claiming to be the victim’s personal care attendants, Rebecca submitted false time records for 119 dates of service, and Douglaz submitted false time records for 238 dates of service. This caused Missouri Medicaid to be falsely billed for $27,937.76 for services not provided as claimed.