DALLAS — When the for-sale sign appeared on their vacant lot last fall, it was the first inkling something wasn’t right.
Dalphine Parrish knew her mother wasn’t selling the lot.
Her parents, Vera and Dennis Mitchell, bought the property in south central Dallas in 1972, and they kept the corner lot as an investment.
“To us, it’s prized property,” Parrish told WFAA.
In December, the family discovered a deed filed with the Dallas County clerk stating her mother sold the property two months earlier.
“When I saw the signature, I knew it wasn’t mine,” said Vera Mitchell, Parrish’s mother.
At 92, Mitchell no longer drives, nor does she even have a driver’s license.
But police found somebody posing as her provided the title company with a fake driver’s license with her name on it.
“Somebody had stolen the identity to steal the property,” Dallas Police detective Gregory White said.
To date, police have not identified the person who posed as Mitchell.
“All of the leads are going out of the state of Texas,” the detective said.
Parrish told WFAA, “Everything was done electronically....Even with the title company, (the) filing of the deed, the change from my mom's name to the other person's name."
Citing the ongoing investigation, White declined to detail how the transaction was accomplished, including who may have spoken with or met the person posing as Mitchell.
Two days after the family discovered the fraudulent deed, WFAA aired a special aired called “Dirty Deeds.” The special chronicled WFAA’s four-year investigation, exposing how thieves stole houses, a restaurant, a church and even a former Sam’s Club.
Parrish saw the special and contacted WFAA.
“That's when I had to reach out to you. I said, ‘This is us,’” Parrish told WFAA in January. “This is what’s happening to us right now.”
As it currently stands, the law requires victims to go through the civil courts to regain control of their property.
WFAA accompanied Parrish when she went downtown to the civil courthouse ready to begin the fight to get her mom’s property back.
She’d filled out paperwork created by County Clerk John Warren that’s intended to help victims of deed fraud reclaim their property without having to hire an attorney. She’d included her parents’ deed buying the property and county tax records.
After filing the paperwork, Parrish tried to go see the judge.
“If the judge signs off on it, we get our property back,” she told WFAA as she walked toward the courtroom. “We're going to get it, just get our property back as easy as it was taken.”
The judge wasn’t there, and she’d quickly learned it wasn’t going to be easy.
Making matters more urgent, signs from the city’s Board of Adjustment soon appeared on the lot.
City records showed the new owners planned to soon build a 1,600-square foot house on the lot.
In December, they had applied to the board seeking to build closer to the street.
“It was like, this is really happening,” Parrish said. “Somebody really stole this property and now somebody’s doing something without our permission.”
In February, the new owner’s request came before the board.
The new owners, however, didn’t show.
By then, they’d been notified about questions regarding the property’s ownership.
Parrish and her brother, Larry Mitchell, did attend, along with their mother.
“So, who all do we have registered to speak in opposition?” Board Chair Dave Neumann asked.
Parrish spoke on her mother’s behalf.
“This has been fraudulently obtained and so we are still in litigation,” she told the Board. “I’m asking for a continuance or a postponement.”
Larry Mitchell stood next, telling the board, “I believe you all will do the right thing.”
Neumann asked the Board’s lawyer, “So is there a process that staff goes through to verify the rightful owner applicant or is it presumed?”
The Board’s lawyer explained that the staff reviews deed records, as well as property tax records and checks to see if there are liens on the property.
A staff member told the panel that the city doesn’t “vet the legitimacy” of deed records “to say that these are illegitimate or fraudulent.”
“So, it’s not really in the purview of the board to determine ownership or not?” Neumann asked.
“That is not something that this board can do,” a city staff member replied.
Based on what they’d heard and the applicant’s absence, the board panel unanimously rejected the application. But the board’s decision left it open for the applicant to reapply.
“We made that decision based on the totality of the evidence,” Neumann told WFAA in a phone interview. “I think the system worked.”
But what if the application had been approved and a house had been built?
“What a mess right, right?" said attorney Pete Schulte, a previous chair of the Board of Adjustment. “The civil courts would have to look at that and go, ‘Well, we have a structure built on property that has separate owners, right, that nobody knew.’ That is about the most complex real property case you can have and nobody's going to be happy with the outcome.”
Along the way, Parrish realized they needed a lawyer to continue their fight.
“At the end of the day, the way the system is set up, you're going to need an attorney to call the shots,” Parrish said. “There's certain people that judges and other attorneys will talk to, you know, legally, whether I have power of attorney or not, I can't represent my mom in court. I cannot be her attorney.”
In September, the buyer who bought the lot from the person posing as Vera Mitchell signed a new deed, transferring the property back over to Vera Mitchell.
“I cried many nights. I couldn't sleep at night. I was just miserable that someone had taken my property,” Vera Mitchell said. “I didn't know if I could live to see it. but I thank God I did live to see it and I'm overjoyed.”
It took 11 months to regain ownership of their property
“This is the day the Lord has made,” Larry Mitchell said, hugging his sister at the vacant lot.
“God Bless you,” she responded.
The siblings say state lawmakers need to act to protect owners like their mother.
“Everybody's not going to have the time or the energy or the tenacity to do it or the money because they will just quit,” Parrish said.
As they left the property, Larry Mitchell yanked up the last remaining board of adjustment sign.
“They should have come and got their sign,” his sister told him. “Put it in the trash.”
Now, they’re making construction plans of their own for the lot.
Dallas County and most surrounding Counties provide a free property fraud alert system to property owners who sign up. Once you sign up, you will get an immediate notification if something has been filed regarding their registered property at the County Clerk’s Office. Here’s the link for Dallas County.
More coverage of Dirty Deeds from WFAA Investigates: