Woman goes to check on elderly dad in South Carolina, only to be told he was dead and another family was living in his home

A South Carolina woman has accused her father’s caretaker of taking advantage of the 75-year-old in the weeks leading up to his death. Nora Rowland claims that the caretaker, Sarah Smalls, had her father sign over the deed to his home weeks before his death but never told her about it.

Rowland says that Smalls began caring for her father in March 2024, reports KBTX. However, shortly after Smalls was hired, Rowland claimed she began hearing less and less from her father. “We FaceTimed every week,” Rowland said. She also claimed that she and her father had a close relationship: “My dad was always a daddy’s girl type thing, so it was always him and me throughout my whole life.”

After an extended period without contact, Rowland made the journey from her home in Maryland to her father’s home to check on him in person, but what she found upon arrival left her gobsmacked, to say the least.

Sarah Smalls had the deed to the house

From the exterior alone, Rowland noticed that there had been some changes made to her father’s home. The front door had been changed, and a Ring doorbell camera had also been installed. She pressed the doorbell and was delivered the terrible news. “She tells me, ‘This isn’t the way that I wanted to tell you, but your dad died,” Rowland said, adding that she was told there was “a bunch of other stuff I have to tell you too.”

Rowland was told that her father had been dead for three days. When she entered the house, she realized that everything inside had been changed too. Footage she recorded and shared online shows her horrified reaction as she noticed new furniture, freshly painted walls, and photographs of a family she didn’t recognize.

“I went in, and everything was different,” Rowland said, noting that it looked like a new family had moved into her dad’s home.

Smalls returned shortly afterward and accused Rowland of breaking in before calling the police. Her father’s caretaker allegedly showed police the deed to the house in her name, and Rowland and her partner were put in cuffs and taken away.

Concerns for Rowland’s father

Police bodycam footage also reportedly showed neighbors expressing concerns over what he saw. They claimed that Smalls came to take care of the 75-year-old but one day started moving furniture out of the home before the father “disappeared.”

“He was not within his wits at all. You could’ve talked him into just about anything. I even called senior services and asked them to look into it.” The neighbor claimed.

Documents showed that Smalls became the father’s power of attorney in April and that the deed to the house was transferred to her for $5 on April 17. Marion Foxworth III, Horry County’s registrar of deeds, stated that his office does not take into account people’s motives, only whether the deed meets the legal requirements for the state.

While the criminal charges against Rowland have been dropped, she is still attempting to challenge the deed that transferred her father’s property to Sarah Smalls. She claimed that her father was a vulnerable adult with Parkinson’s and a brain injury and that he possibly did not know what he was signing away. The incident is under investigation by local authorities.