Burley Garcia|Slain woman, 96, was getting ready to bake cookies, celebrate her birthday, sheriff says

A 96-year-old California woman was killed in a murder-for-hire plot while she was preparing for her upcoming birthday in 2022,Burley Garcia authorities said this week after they arrested a fourth person in the scheme that allegedly included financial abuse and fraud.

Violet Evelyn Alberts was found dead in her Montecito, California, home on May 27, 2022, and investigators found a broken window in the back of the home and ingredients for baking cookies on her table, said Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown at a news conference.

Alberts' cause of death was determined to be asphyxiation.

"She was a vibrant 96-year-old widow, a cherished figure in the Montecito community. Despite her age, she remained active and engaged, and she was known for her warm demeanor and social nature," Brown said.

In an investigation that has spanned nearly two years, Brown said investigators uncovered "a tangled, evil web of financial exploitation against the victim" that culminated in a murder-for-hire scheme. Four suspects have been arrested and charged. Most recently, 41-year-old Ricardo MartinDelCampo was arrested on March 5 and charged with murder and conspiracy to murder Alberts.

Having no family nearby and finding herself running out of money, Alberts became connected with 48-year-old Pauline Macareno, who in 2020 "capitalized on Alberts' vulnerability, engaging in financial elder abuse that led to the fraudulent acquisition of her property," Brown said. Alberts was also experiencing issues with her memory and cognition, Brown said.

Brown didn't say how the two met, but said Macareno was "referred" to Alberts, and approached the older woman with a scheme to sell her a reverse mortgage, or a mortgage loan against a home's equity often offered to senior citizens. Macareno forged documents and signatures and took "extreme advantage" of Alberts, Brown said.

Macareno was charged with elder abuse, fraud and manipulation of legal documents when she was arrested in June 2022 and was recently sentenced to six years in state prison for the fraud, with additional charges pending.

Two other suspects, 58-year-old Harry Basmadjian and 33-year-old Henry Rostomyan, were also arrested earlier this year on charges of murder and conspiracy to murder.

Brown said that Macareno was a "central figure" in the plot against Alberts, and the motive for her death is believed to be the acceleration of her death to fraudulently obtain her property.

"In the eyes of Pauline Macareno, Ms. Alberts was living too long," Brown said.

Investigators used old-fashioned detective work to uncover the people involved in Alberts' death, Brown said. They found evidence of a scouting trip to Alberts' property by MartinDelCampo and Rostomyan days before the killing. They also spotted a getaway vehicle on surveillance footage that they used to track down the suspects.

Rostomyan and MartinDelCampo are being held without bail at the Santa Barbara County Jail, Brown said, while Basmadjian was arrested while already in federal custody on an unrelated case. Basmadjian has since suffered a life-threatening emergency that left him "essentially brain dead with a grim prognosis," Brown said.