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2 women to be arraigned over homeless killings

Police released new DNA evidence they said tied two women to an alleged plot to collect more than $2 million in insurance by running over and killing homeless men.
/ Source: The Associated Press

Police released new DNA evidence they said tied two women to an alleged plot to collect more than $2 million in life insurance by running over and killing homeless men.

Tissue from one of the dead men was found in three locations on the undercarriage of a station wagon the women once owned, police said Wednesday. The car was later abandoned.

Olga Rutterschmidt, 73, and Helen Golay, 75, were scheduled to be arraigned Thursday, a day after they were released from federal custody and re-arrested on state murder charges.

They face two counts of murder and two counts of conspiracy to commit murder for financial gain for the deaths of Paul Vados, 73, in November 1999 and Kenneth McDavid, 51, in June 2005. The women are eligible for the death penalty if convicted.

Authorities alleged that Golay and Rutterschmidt befriended the transients, convinced the men to add them to their life insurance policies and then collected some $2.3 million after they were killed.

An investigation was launched last year when police looking into McDavid’s death found similarities to the Vados case.

Investigators said they believed the women drugged Vados and McDavid before killing them. “We think they drugged them with pills or alcohol first, then ran over them,” Kilcoyne said.

The women were arrested in May and initially charged with federal mail fraud in connection with the insurance scheme. In announcing the arrests, authorities said they believed Golay and Rutterschmidt were befriending other vulnerable men to set up more insurance policies.