Overland Park couple gets prison time for stealing dead father’s retirement checks
An Overland Park couple was sentenced to prison for stealing more than $200,000 in Social Security and retirement benefits while concealing the death of a relative, according to the U.S. District Attorney’s Office in Kansas.
Lynn Ritter, 62, and Kirk Ritter, 62, pleaded guilty to wire fraud and theft of government funds as part of plea agreements in September 2024. On Tuesday, a federal judge sentenced Lynn Ritter to just over 12 months in prison. Kirk Ritter was sentenced to seven months in prison.
The married couple lived with Lynn Ritter’s father, Mike Carroll, 81, of Overland Park, and she was acting as his caretaker, according to court records.. Authorities learned of her father’s death when Kirk Ritter called police in October 2022 and told them that Carroll had died, according to court documents.
Police found Carroll’s remains in a “mummified state” in a bed at his home. Authorities later determined he died on or about July 1, 2016.
Overland Park police initially investigated the case as a suspicious death, and the Johnson County Medical Examiner’s Office later determined Carroll had died of natural causes.
Extended family members of Carroll previously told The Star that the Ritters were financially dependent on Carroll. Family members were led to believe he was still alive, but were given excuses as to why he could never take a phone call.
For six years after his death, the Ritters continued to collect retirement and Social Security payments through Carroll’s bank accounts, authorities said. In the years after July 2016, a total of $216,066 in pension and Social Security payments were deposited into the bank account, court records said.
Without authority, the Ritters wrote checks on Carroll’s account and transferred funds into their bank accounts to use for their own personal benefit, the District Attorney’s Office said in a press release.
Kirk Ritter’s attorney, Carl Cornwell, was not immediately available for comment Tuesday.
The Ritters paid the funds back during their prosecution, the press release said.
Previous reporting by The Star’s Nathan Pilling and Jenna Thompson contributed to this story.
