A Florida deputy is accused of attempting to kill an elderly woman he had been defrauding, according to the Miami Herald.
Deputy Frankie Eugene Bybee, 46, had befriended the 79-year-old woman in October after responding to a service call.
The Herald reported that things got dicey when Bybee resold the woman's dog, named JJ, on Craigslist after she asked him to care for it while she was hospitalized.
During this time, Bybee continued to visit the woman in the hospital "to further his relationship with her" and asked about her financial information, WTSP reported.
On Jan. 9, Bybee was placed on administrative leave after receiving checks totaling $65,000, which the woman claimed were fraudulently signed, CBS News reported.
WTVT reported that forensic analysis of the checks showed that the woman's fingerprints weren't on any of them, but Bybee's were.
The Herald reported that three days later, Bybee retaliated by breaking into the woman's house and forcing sleeping pills down her throat. The woman woke up later in the garage with her car engine running.
"Our investigation revealed that Bybee attempted to kill the victim and make it appear to be a suicide," Sarasota County Sheriff Thomas Knight told the Miami Herald.
Bybee now faces charges of larceny, exploitation of the elderly of $50,000 or more, forgery, burglary of an occupied dwelling, battery on a person 65 or older and attempted murder.
The Sheriff's Office said in a tweet Tuesday that the woman's dog had been located and reunited with its owner.
"It is beyond unacceptable an individual who works in a postilion of trust and guardianship to their community and is capable of the heinous crimes like Frankie Bybee committed. It is a disgrace to this agency and to the law enforcement profession," Sheriff Knight told CBS News.
Read more at the Miami Herald.
