KRGV.com

WESLACO - An elderly woman says her home care provider has the title to her house and won't give it back.

The woman says she signed the title over to her provider hoping to save her house. Now the person she trusted is refusing to give her home back.

"Under the tree is Kim's stone. She used to say to me everyday, ‘I love you in Jesus.' I would say to her, ‘I love you in Jesus,'" says Dottie Korstad.

Death leaves a heartache that's hard to heal.

"It was ovarian cancer ... Yolanda took me to visit her ... the doctor said your sister is brain dead," says Korstad.

Every day for the last two years was almost unbearable for Korstad.

"I went to pieces inside, and everyday I just tried not to die," says Korstad.

She and her sister Kim lived together for 10 years in Weslaco. Dottie gave the title to her home to her sister as a gift.

"I put the house in her name. She said all of us kids had houses and she wanted a house, so I put it in her name. I didn't know she was sick; she didn't know she was sick," says Korstad.

She says Kim wanted to transfer the house back to Dottie after she was diagnosed with cancer. Dottie says a social worker told her that was a bad idea. Kim's hospital bills were adding up. Dottie is on a fixed income. She couldn't pay. She asked her home care provider for help.

"I asked. She put the house in her name so the hospital wouldn't take it away from me," says Korstad.

She was afraid the hospital would take the house to settle her sister's medical bills. A legal contract shows the title was transferred to the provider. Korstad says after Kim died, she wanted the house back.

"She wouldn't give it back," says Korstad.

Korstad says the provider also has the titles to her two cars. She says the woman took them without paying the price they agreed on for the cars.

"She also had her name on my checking account," says Korstad.

She says she paid a lawyer her last $3,000 to try to get her house back. She says the lawyer told her he'd need another $10,000 to finish the case. She didn't have the money.

Korstad says she's considered a vulnerable adult. A state caseworker is in charge of helping her.

Korstad hadn't report any of this to the police because she said she afraid of the police, but an officer came to get her statement Thursday. He told her an investigator would try to find the provider who had the title to the house.

We tried to call that provider.

The administrator of the company and the provider agreed to meet for an interview but then didn't show up. She confirmed the provider did work for her company and for Korstad. The administrator says the woman quit last July because Korstad was asking her to do tasks that weren't covered in her job.

"I want my house; I worked really hard for this house," says Korstad.

Home health care companies say it's against their company policy for providers to accept their clients' personal properties, even if a client offers them.