Grandmother Steals Grandson's College Fund, Gambles It Away

Granny makes off with grands

Damn, Grandma.

73-year-old Edna Sue Pate was on the run after stealing her grandson's $100,000 college fund and gambling it away.

Pate was the sole trustee of her maternal grandson's Christian Smith's college fund that was left behind in 2003 by a deceased doctor she used to work for.

In 2011, as Christian was set to graduate from high school, he began reaching out to his grandmother to release the funds. She never hit him back. 

Knowing that she liked to gamble, he got worried and brought a civil action against her, demanding she give an accounting of the trust. When they didn't hear back from her, local law enforcement issued a warrant for Pate's arrest.

[ALSO READ: Grandma, 69, Earns 1st-Degree Black Belt]

Earlier today it was reported that 100-Grand Granny was located in Louisiana, but she will not be arrested or extradited.

ABC News reports: 

Between 2004 and 2007, Pate wrote 111 checks on the trust totaling $97,007.75. "The vast majority were made payable to cash," says the affidavit. Pate next set up a separate account, from which, between 2009 and April 2010, she made 49 withdrawals totaling a little over $6,480. Thirty of these "were made at the ATM at either the Majestic Star II Casino in Gary or the Ameristar Casino in East Chicago." Majestic Star records, says the document, "reveal that during the same time period she [Pate] had a total of $93,662 in losses."

​​If the money would have been left alone, the fund, through interest, would be at $160,000 now. Stipulations in the trust say Christian would have received all of the money at age 26 if he chose not to go to college. Friends and family say he never really expressed an interest in going, but now, he wants to.

[SUBSCRIBE TO LOOP 21 RSS FEED]