A father and son accused of murdering a housekeeper stood to gain $1m from her death after purchasing part of her life insurance policy from an insurance agent, it has been revealed.
Anita Fox was murdered in September as she cleaned a wealthy client's home in Texas.
Bernard Gorman, 27, and his 48-year-old father Gerard Gorm allegedly stabbed her to death after buying part of the 72-year-old's life insurance policy in a deal that has raised suspicions.
The accused killers, part of a travellers community originally from Ireland, had been paying $700 a month on Fox's policy after purchasing it - but stood to gain when she passed away.
Slain: Police say Anita Fox, pictured, was killed in a Colleyville, Texas home in September by two Irish Travellers who'd invested in her life insurance policies through a crooked agent
Fox's daughter Virginia Buckland and her husband Mark Buckland sold part of her mother's policy in a deal done by insurance agent Charles Mercier - after he told them the process of transferring policies to investors was 'legal and done all the time,' according to the Star-Telegram.
Despite their considerable means--Mark owns construction company--the Bucklands decided they could not afford some of the policies they held on Fox after converting them from term-life to pricier whole-life policies.
Mercier said he knew a guy who invested in such policies.
'Mercier tells the Bucklands that he will pay not only the premiums on that policy, but he'll pay extra so that these other premiums will be more affordable,' an attorney for the Bucklands, Mark Humphreys, told the Star-Telegram.
The deal made the Gormans the beneficiaries of a $1 million policy on Fox, on which police now say Bernard and Gerard paid $700 per month with the help of two other family members.
The Bucklands' attorney says his clients never knew who the investors were and that Mercier made the deal illegally.
Accused: Police say Bernard Gorman, 27, and his 48-year-old father Gerard Gorman--members of the itinerant Irish Travellers ethnic group--were after Anita Fox's insurance payout and stabbed her in a Colleyville home last year in order to get it
Horror scene: Fox was found dead in a pool of blood in this upscale Colleyville, Texas home in September 2014
Fox's family held policies on her worth $5 million but chose to sell some of the holdings through an insurance agent who dealt with the father-son duo
'There is no record at all of my client ever having any contact or knowing Gorman in any way, shape, form or fashion,' Humphreys said. 'My client never knew them. All they knew is Mercier's dad had a friend who did these kind of investments.'
While the Buckland's have been cleared of any and all involvement in the murder, Mark Buckland's involvement with his mother-in-law's finances initially made police suspicious.
Fox had some $4 million in life insurance policies that named Mark Buckland, Virginia Buckland and Fox's husband as beneficiaries.
The insurance companies have said the policies may have been obtained fraudulently and that it remains unclear whether Fox knew they existed.
At least one of the insurers, citing the investigation, suggests that the Bucklands could have been involved in the slaying, thus forfeiting any payment.
Humphreys insists that Fox knew about the policies and that she had even suggested their purchase during a family gathering on Thanksgiving 2007.
The Bucklands have filed several lawsuits against the insurance companies they say have unfairly withheld millions in payours.
They've been cleared of involvement in the slaying, did not commit insurance fraud and just want what's owed to them, Humphreys said. He said they are devastated by the suggestion that they had something to do with Fox's death.
Bernard Gorman has been charged with Fox's murder and remains free on bail.
When interviewed two days after Fox's death, the Bucklands told investigators that there were no known active insurance policies on Fox, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.
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ShareMark Buckland, however, later admitted to a sergeant that he had not been truthful and that he did have a policy on his mother-in-law 'and that it was a monster.'
'I think (Mark Buckland's) attitude at the time is, it really wasn't any of his business as to what insurance policies there were or weren't,' Humphreys said. 'My clients are very down to earth. They don't live a high lifestyle. They did not want anyone to know that they had a lot of money.'
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