Daughter sues former executor of mum’s will after jewels go missing
A DAUGHTER whose mother’s corpse lay undiscovered for weeks is suing a family friend over the disappearance of her jewellery.
Lucille Maeda, 77, was found dead when her US-based daughter Deborah Ziparo raised the alarm after calling up to 20 times a day for three weeks and getting no answer.
Police found the badly decomposed body on the floor of the deceased widow’s home in Merrow, Surrey, on September 24, 2015.
A post-mortem gave the cause of death as “unascertained” because the remains would not yield results from a toxicology test by the pathologist. Former secretary Ms Ziparo visited in November 2015 to sort out her mum’s possessions, but claims many valuable items, including her wedding ring, had gone.
Having hired private investigators to solve the puzzle, Ms Ziparo is suing Christopher Martin, a family friend, neighbour and former executor of her mum’s will, who denies the allegations.
Central London County Court heard that the neighbour had been appointed one of the executors of
Mrs Maeda’s estate in her will made in 2012.
However Ms Ziparo took him to court and got him removed from that role in 2019. Now she is demanding he pay her mother’s estate for the missing valuables and the costs of her investigation.
If Ms Ziparo succeeds, Mr Martin will have to pay for her legal expenses of more than £200,000 on top of any order made against him. Ms Ziparo said: “Her wedding ring was not on her body. I never received my mother’s wedding ring.
“It was photographed with the ashes – never to be seen again.”
Other allegedly missing items include a diamond and ruby ring, a fur coat, watches, a bone china dinner set, a jewellery box, furs, clocks, porcelain dolls, crystal decanters and glasses.
Her barrister Gideon Roseman told judge Simon Monty QC that Mr Martin had secretly entered the property repeatedly. He said: “There is no evidence anyone broke in, and the deceased was a hoarder which meant it was inherently unlikely she would have disposed of her chattels.”
William Moffett, for Mr Martin, said: “Mr Martin was one of several persons with access to the property. He is perplexed and upset that he should have been the subject of very serious but baseless allegations.” The hearing continues.