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Woman Claimed Daughter Died To Collect Money, Police Say

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By VALERIE KALFRIN, The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 1, 2007

TAMPA - Osteopathic doctor Luis A. Ycaza thought he knew his patient well.

After treating Jean Rodriguez Fontalvo for about three months, Ycaza was saddened to hear that her 13-year-old daughter had died of cancer and Fontalvo did not have the money to bury her.

'We were going to give her a check,' the doctor recalled.

But her story was a lie, along with the death certificate she produced to corroborate her tale, Tampa police said.

Detectives arrested Fontalvo at Ycaza's office Tuesday after she collected a $500 check from him during an undercover operation - with her daughter, alive and well, waiting in the parking lot.

Now investigators are searching for others she might have snookered.

'If other people have given her money, we would definitely like to hear from them,' economic crimes Sgt. Paul Mumford said.

Mumford said Fontalvo, 40, doctored a death certificate from an actual person, typing in her daughter's name and a puzzling birth date of Jan. 24 of this year, making the girl seven months old. She also showed off her daughter's photograph and passed around a written request for donations on the letterhead of a local funeral parlor, he said.

The daughter was with her grandmother Tuesday evening, Mumford said. Police do not think the girl knew about the ruse.

Mumford did not know how much money Fontalvo might have collected. He did not say what other businesses she had visited but said they were health professionals.

Police charged Fontalvo with felony uttering a forged instrument, felony scheme to defraud, felony grand theft and a misdemeanor charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. She was held on $12,000 bail at Orient Road Jail on Tuesday afternoon.

Wearing a yellow T-shirt with the word 'Princess' on the front, Fontalvo had nothing to say as detectives led her in handcuffs to a police car.

'It's just unbelievable,' Ycaza said after her arrest. 'You literally feel raped. Just completely cheated. Speechless. Heartbroken for the little girl. ... It's amazing how anyone could potentially use the name of her own daughter to literally violate a basic instinct of humanity.'

A woman who identified herself as Fontalvo's mother declined to speak to a reporter at Fontalvo's apartment at 10935 N. Brittany Lane in Tampa. 'I've been through a lot today,' the woman said, starting to cry.

Public records show Fontalvo previously has faked a relative's death for profit. In 2003, she was sentenced to two years in a state prison after receiving $15,000 from a life-insurance policy for her still-living husband, investigators said.

She is awaiting trial this month for faking a death certificate for a nonexistent sister in an attempt to collect $20,000 on another life-insurance policy, investigators said.

Florida Department of Corrections records show she has been incarcerated or under community supervision since 1990 for check fraud, grand theft, forgery, uttering a forged instrument, fraudulent use of personal identification and organized fraud.

Ycaza, who runs the Injury Care Institute at 4107 N. Himes Ave., said it was this criminal record that made him suspicious.

Fontalvo was being treated for an injury she said was from a motor-vehicle accident, Ycaza said. After she mentioned her daughter's death and financial problems, one of the office's therapists, on a whim, checked her criminal background, Ycaza said. After seeing the fraud charges, Ycaza called police, 'who said to see if we could proceed with a staged situation.'

Ycaza said he asked for the death certificate, which Fontalvo provided. He then agreed to meet with her at the office to give her a check.

'We had to ask her if that was enough money or if we could do more for her. She said no,' he said.

Reporter Valerie Kalfrin can be reached at (813) 259-7800 or vkalfrin@tampatrib.com.

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