An investigator with the Broward County Medical Examiner’s Office pilfered hundreds of dollars from the bank account of a deceased man by transferring the funds to his Cash App account, police say.
Aside from his South Florida exploits, he may have stolen from dead residents several more times — and in different states.
Darrell Fernando Reid Jr., 38, is charged with three counts of fraudulently using the personal identification information of a deceased person and fraudulent use of a credit card. Reid, who was arrested earlier this month, has since been released from jail on a $6,000 bond.
Reid was hired at the medical examiner’s office in April 2023 and resigned from his post on Friday, Broward County spokesperson Greg Meyer told the Miami Herald. Reid, according to Meyer, responded to scenes and didn’t have “direct contact” with victims.
During the investigation, a wallet with multiple debit and credit cards was found. Hours later, authorities locked the apartment and gave the keys to the only surviving daughter and next of kin of the deceased.
Two days later, the daughter found his Bank of America debit card on the kitchen counter, outside his wallet. When she looked at her father’s checking account, she discovered three “suspicious” transactions dating after her father’s body being found.
The transactions were described as $150 payments sent via money transfer application Cash App to a woman Reid was dating. The Miami Herald isn’t naming the woman as she hasn’t been criminally charged.
The daughter subsequently reported her findings to Bank of America — and the Coral Springs Police Department. The bank returned the stolen funds, though investigators have yet to uncover who took the dead man’s money.
Stealing from a dead man?
In response to a subpoena, Block Inc., the parent company of Cash App, detailed to police that two accounts, one of which belonged to Reid, were tied to the fraudulent transactions, the arrest warrant states. His Cash App account was associated with Reid’s email and cell phone number, according to police.
An examination revealed that the man’s debit card was linked to Reid’s Cash App and added as a payment source an hour and a half after authorities gave the apartment keys to the man’s daughter, according to police. The card was then used to send $150 to the account of the woman Reid was dating about 45 minutes later, a few minutes after midnight on Oct. 22.
Comcast’s response to another subpoena later linked Reid’s IP address, a unique number that tracks the online activity of a computer or network, to his Pembroke Pines apartment, police said.
Police say two other transactions were made Oct. 22 and 23 using Reid’s AT&T cellphone IP address.
More victims?
During the investigation, the Coral Springs police made another discovery.
From 2020 until November of last year, 25 debit or credit cards were added to Reid’s Cash App as a source of payment, and two belonged to people whose deaths were previously investigated by Reid in Broward County and New York City, where he worked as an investigator for the Office of Chief Medical Examiner, the arrest warrant states.
Documentation further detailed that Reid was at both death scenes on Nov. 6 and Dec. 2, 2022, respectively.
A third card belonged to a person whose death was investigated by the Broward Medical Examiner’s Office. Police said in the arrest warrant that Reid was not the investigator at the scene on Oct. 30; however, he had access to the case’s files, including a photo of the debit card that belonged to the dead person.
The Broward Medical Examiner’s Office declined to comment on Reid’s arrest. NYC’s Office of Chief Medical Examiner didn’t respond to the Miami Herald’s request for comment as of Tuesday evening.
What’s next?
On Jan. 16, Coral Springs police told Reid he was the target of a criminal investigation, but he invoked his right to legal counsel, investigators said.
Two days later, police called the woman Reid was dating by dialing the phone number associated with her Cash App account. She informed them that they were dating. What she later told them, if anything, wasn’t included in Reid’s arrest warrant, filed Jan. 22.
Court records show that Reid was arrested Jan. 19.
“An investigation into the account holders of the additional cards is presently ongoing and subpoenas have been served to multiple banking institutions,” Reid’s warrant states.
The date of Reid’s next court appearance is not yet known.
By Omar Rodriguez Ortiz and Grethel Aguila – Miami Herald
Tags: Arrests Cash App Fraud Fraud Identity Theft New Trends
