FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Aug. 24 (UPI) -- Con artists posing as fortune tellers preyed on romance novelist Jude Devereaux, bilking her out of $20 million, a Florida detective and court documents say.
Devereaux, 63, who has sold more than 50 million copies of her novels, was allegedly deeply distraught due to marital troubles, problems conceiving and the death later on of her 8-year-old son, ABC News reported Wednesday.
She said she was "days away from suicide" in a hotel room when a Fort Lauderdale detective named Charlie Stack tracked her down. Stack was at the tail end of an investigation involving between 15 and 18 alleged victims of a family of purported psychics.
"When we found her, she had practically no money left to her name," Stack said.
In 1991 when Devereaux was having difficulties getting pregnant and in her marriage, she walked into a New York psychic parlor where she allegedly sought succor from a woman using the name Joyce Michael but whose actual name was Rose Marks, court documents show.
During the course of 17 years, Devereaux returned to the establishment and willingly handed over millions of dollars in an effort to alleviate her pain and grief through Marks' employment of palm and Tarot card readings, astrology and numerology.
Marks, 60, and eight of her family members were arrested last week for allegedly convincing victims to fork over vast amounts of money and other valuables, ABC said.
"It's not an easy road. After a while, [the victims] start to sense that something's not right and then when law enforcement comes along, they realize something really is wrong," Stack said. "All of the victims in the end will say, 'I can't believe I fell for this.'"
