The Homeless Stranger and the Rich Widow: A Tale of True Love or Deception?

A homeless man falls in love with a rich woman many years his senior and starts living with her. Is it a true love story or something else?

Carolyn Holland, 80, was a wealthy widow. She was living in a resort in the beautiful and quiet town of Kioux, California, when she meet David Foote, 23 years younger than her.

They came to them to repair their household items and help with other tasks. Within a few weeks they became a couple and declared their love.

Carolyn said she never imagined she could love a stranger so much or have a romantic and sexual relationship.

'His caring attitude has given me something special. I love her personality. And I don't like it at all (when he leaves).'

"I will take care of them as much as possible," David told me. Everyone knows Carolyn is minesand I don't joke about it. I don't stay out long at night because I have to visit someone at home. I will be with them till the end.

Carolyn's daughters however saw something else.

They believed that David was cheating on thea mother of them for money and that this would break their her heart. making them sad.

I know David and Carolyn's story because I live on their street. Life in the Kyoks moves slowly and people sit together and talk to each other.

There is an embankment that extends almost a thousand feet into the sea and when the light is fading in the evening you can see the shadows of the waves against the setting sun.

It's a perfect setting for a love story and I wanted to believe what David was saying but like Carolyn's family, I was suspicious of the whole situation.

Was Carolyn becoming a victims of from financial abuse,taking advantage of her age and emotions to extort money from her?One in five women over the age of 60 suffer from this fear.

Carolyn's niece told me:

'theThe age difference was bothering me, it was for me alarming. Why would someone his age pretend he loves them (Carolyn)? Except because he needs a place to live.

I was in a unique position to see the layers of this story unfold. Every character in this story wanted discussions to discuss about this topic. Carolyn's daughters were keen to discuss their concerns, while David and Carolyn believed they were being misrepresented and wanted to say their story.

I first David very warmly. A neighbor suggested his name to me for home renovation work while getting information about David from a local church where he attended regular worship. David was loved by all his colleagues who worked with him.He played harmonica and guitar.He had a good sense of humor and was open about his past.

The moreI learned about this story, the most I began to understand why Carolyn's family was upset about the situation.

When David came to the Kioux, he was homeless and living in difficult conditions. When they first came to Carolyn's house, they were spending the night next toPushte.

He confirmed that he was addicted to crystal meth and due to because of this addiction he also sold drugs. Because of his meth habit, he lived in whispers and was suspicious of everyone around him.

In this situation, he was once jailed for the crime of making a pipe bomb.

According to police, they may have wanted to target a Wal-Mart department store. David still believes in thinks Wal-Mart wants to microchip everyone.

David claimed to have given up drugs, but I noticed that he drank a lot and smoked weeed.

Carolyn's daughters, Susan and Sally were horrorfiedhorrified by their mother's interacting change in personality after meeting David.

'It's like a fairy tale world, it's really strange,' Sally said. Soon as he (David) came, she (Carolyn) would become like a young man. She would start laughing strangely.

Not the for a moment moment did their daughters believe that what they were witnessing was true love. They saw a lonely old lady had mental fachocapacity who needed a companion, and a cunning stranger who wanted to use her.

The question of inheritance was also coming into this story. Carolyn and her late husband owned several million dollar properties.

He asked me this is our family wealth, my parents worked hard for this money. Shouldn't we have a problem with it being given to a failed person?'

Carolyn's daughters believe she was losing her mental capacity before she met David. He try tried to declare his mother mentally incompetent so that she would manage her self her affairs herself.

"They think I have Alzheimer's," Carolyn told me. Yes, I don't many thingsremember remember many things, but I am very stressed a lot. I can make my own decisions.

Carolyn's relationship with David was distancing her from her daughters. But they believed that they had theright to have a partner of their option , their choices.Carolyn said her children didn't take care of them the way they needed after their father died.

"Before Davidhe came to see me, he he never came to see me, never really," he siad.

His daughters do not agree. Susan who live dIded five hours away from them,. She says she wished she could spend more time with him, but she and Sally were both raising their children and working with him.

"We tried our best I mean we tried to make them a part of everything," she says, adding that her mother did not want to join her in these activities.

Sally lived closer to her mother d her than Susan. Before David arrived, she helped her mother with her bank accounts and tax returns. But when the relationship with soured, Carolyn took back control of these matters.

Shortly thereafter, Carolyn signed a loan agreement with David that allowed David to purchase a $40,000 van. I asked them what would happen if David disappeared with the van, causing them to have to pay back the loan. He said it doesn't matter to him and he doesn't care what his daughters think about it.

"Yeah, they think they're saving me from David, but David's the best thing I've ever had." What was David's reality.zs

One day I saw him visit Carolyn after a long day of work, David made food for Carolyn and reminded her to take her medicine. These Are are the moments that made me believe he truly loved Carolyn.

But I also observed them outside the house in the town. He used to proudly tell his friends that very soon he would never have to work.

I decided to research David's past. I had a dark history of domestic violence and neglect with my daughter.

Her relationship with a