The 1998 Con That Led to the Disappearance of a Wealthy Elderly Woman

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Now that that's out of the way, let's get into today's case.

The Suspicious Disappearance of Irene Silverman

On July 5th, 1998 at around 6 pm, the New York Police Department was notified that there was a missing person. The patrol officer on duty reported that there was a missing elderly woman by the name of Irene Silverman.

82-year-old Irene Silverman was a New York woman worth around 15 million dollars. Irene ran a foundation that supported the arts in honor of her mother's name, and she also had a townhouse that she converted into an apartment building where she rented out rooms.

Police paid close attention to Irene's case not only because of her age, but also because of her wealth. She was so wealthy that she had a full staff at her house that included several housekeepers and assistants.

One of her employees was a weekend housekeeper by the name of Aracelis Riviera. Irene told detectives that she had seen Irene on July 5th around 11:45 am. Riviera said that Irene had asked her to walk the dog and clean some garments, and that was the last time she had seen her.

Later on at 2:20 pm, someone phones Irene but when Aracelis goes to knock on her bedroom door there is no response. She then tries again a couple of hours later at 4:40 pm, and that's when she realizes that Irene Silverman was nowhere to be found.

Irene was known to be a homebody, she rarely left her New York City apartment. And so just over an hour after the housekeeper notices that she's gone, she's reported missing.

Police arrived at her apartment and began their search. During the search of her apartment, they find a sketch of a man inside a notebook in her office. The sketch contained certain characteristics of a person who at the time was unknown to authorities.

Manny Guerrin was a tenant of Irene's who rented out apartment 1B. He was a businessman from West Palm Beach who came into contact with Irene via her butcher, who told him about Irene's available apartment. Guerrin, provided good references and $6,000 upfront, and so Irene rented out her apartment to him.

However, her staff later told detectives that Irene had her suspicious about Guerrin from the first day she met him. They also said that, he was the man in the sketch they had found in her notebook. A sketch that she had drawn just two weeks prior to her disappearance.

When detectives went to talk to Manny Guerrin, his apartment was empty and all of his belongings were gone. The housekeeper said that Irene had asked him to leave since she had an uneasy feeling about him. And it looked to detectives like he did just that.

The day after she was reported missing, NYPD detectives that were working alongside the FBI for the bounce check case for the Lincoln Continental, called the detectives working on Irene's case and told them that they had a mother and son in custody with Irene Silverman's identification.

The names of those two individuals were 63-year-old Sante Kimes, and her son, 23-year-old Kenny Kimes. The pair were approached in connection with other petty charges and accused of theft and slavery. As detectives dug deeper, they found out that the two were also suspects in a previous homicide of a family friend (David Kazdin), whose body was found in March of that same year.

They also discovered that Sante took out a mortgage in Kazdin's name by forging his signature on her Las Vegas home. Shortly after the bank began investigating the case, the home would end up in flames and Kazdin would be found dead. When police attempted to get in contact with Sante, she would vanish without a trace, only to end up in New York City and get arrested for stealing a car.

After their arrest for the stolen car, and providing officers with false identification, the two were identified by Irene's staff as Manny Guerrin and Eva Guerrero. Those were the identities that the Kime's had provided when they moved into Irene's apartment.

Inside the stolen car, police found evidence of their con which included over a dozen notebooks detailing their game plan along with Irene's personal information such as her day-to-day schedule, her social security number, and copies of her signature. Authorities also recovered Kenneth's bag inside The Plaza Hotel, which contained the deed to Irene's house, which had been signed over to the Kime's.

While Irene's body was never found, police did have enough evidence to charge the Kime's with her murder. In May of 2000, the mother and son duo were found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. Sante was sentenced to 120 years and Kenny was sentenced to 126 years. They were both also charged with the murder of David Kazdin.

Timeline of Events

• Around 11:45 am, Irene asked the housekeeper on duty to walk the dog and clean some of her garments.
• At 2:20 pm, Irene receives a phone call but when the housekeeper knocks on her bedroom door, there is no response.
• A couple of hours later at 4:40 pm, the housekeeper knocks on Irene's door again but quickly realizes she's not there.
• At 6 pm, Irene is reported as a missing person.
• The next day, police are notified of the mother and son who were arrested with Irene's identification.

Source:

Oxygen

This story was also published on Medium and Substack.