She Forged Her Dead Great-Aunt’s Signature for a Decade to Keep the Survivor Checks Coming

The great-aunt's VA survivor benefits began in 1945 and should have ended at her 1999 death. Horton's mother forged the signature until 2011 — then Horton took over the forgeries until 2022. About $181,714 stolen.

Jessica Horton's great-aunt received VA Survivors' Dependency and Indemnity Compensation after her husband's death in World War II, with benefits beginning May 1, 1945. The great-aunt died on February 21, 1999, which extinguished the entitlement.

Horton's mother fraudulently signed the aunt's name and kept collecting until her own death in 2011. Horton then took over the post office box and signed her great-aunt's name herself from about March 2011 through December 31, 2022.

She deposited the benefits into bank accounts she controlled and converted the money to her own use. The VA terminated the benefits in January 2023. Horton pleaded guilty to theft of government money.

"Month after month for more than a decade, this defendant knowingly and intentionally took money"
— U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of West Virginia

Source: U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of West Virginia. Case file in the VA Fraud case files — part of the VA Fraud record. Cases are published as the courts decided them; amounts are stated as the Justice Department states them (billed, stolen, or ordered in restitution, as labeled).