JACKSONVILLE, Fla — The Volusia County Sheriff's Office is searching for a fraud suspect who allegedly stole a bank card and used it to buy $17,000 in guitars and musical equipment, among other things.
A woman in DeLand hired Mystery Shiloh Demarest to move into her home and help take car of her sick husband. Demarest moved in around May 2019 to help with household chores and shopping.
Soon after the 78-year-old gave Demarest her credit card to pay for groceries at Publix, large packages began showing up at the home. Demarest blamed his girlfriend and said he would return all of the items for a refund, officials said.
The victim then lost contact with 49-year-old Demarest.
Once the victim checked her bank records, she noticed 11 charges at GuitarAttic and Reverb.com. There were also charges for a plane ticket and a hotel room charged to her card as well as a storage unit, according to law enforcement.
Trying to understand what was going on, the victim checked out the storage unit and found that the rent was overdue and the unit had been put up for auction online. She and her attorney found the listing online, along with a photo of the opened unit showing several guitar cases and other music equipment inside.
Once investigators had a search warrant, they found 11 Gibson Les Paul guitars, 2 Marshall reverb boards, 7 large speakers, a drum set and multiple music stands.
Law enforcement are still searching for Demarest. The fraud suspect's whereabouts are unknown. Police believe there could be a chance he is in the Raleigh, N.C area as he traveled there in 2019 using the victim's credit card.\
