Memory care worker accused of pawning wedding rings fails to appear in court
Photo illustration: wedding ring set Pixabay
(ABC 6 News) – A Texas woman accused of stealing and pawning wedding rings from a woman with dementia failed to appear in Freeborn County Court Oct. 31.
Clasette Leanne Way, 23, moved back to Donna, Texas before being accused of the Albert Lea theft.
According to court documents, in February of 2024, a man contacted police because his wife, a dementia patient in a memory care facility, was missing her wedding rings.
The three wedding sets were appraised at $7,775 dollars.
According to court documents, the facility lead said the rings had been noted missing in late February, and the last time they’d been accounted for were when Way removed them so the woman could bathe.
In April, an Albert Lea investigator searched for pawn shop activity by Way and noted that two of the rings had been sold to shops in Alamo and Harlingen, Texas.
The memory care facility said Way had moved back to Texas for a family emergency.
Way allegedly told an investigator that she had “forgotten” the rings were in her pocket months prior, brought them to Texas, panicked, and “one thing led to another”– so she sold them.