Beware Mysterious Mark - A True Account of Elder Financial Abuse
It can happen to anyone. Your parent. Your partner. Your neighbour.
Beware Mysterious Mark is a ten-part audio documentary about elder financial abuse, built around one harrowing true account of how a predator isolated an elderly man from his family and systematically took control of his life and his assets. Names have been changed. Events and conversations are drawn directly from the family's own detailed records.
Told by storyteller Nancy Miles, whose partner Brooke watched her father taken piece by piece over seven years, the series weaves dramatized conversations re-enacted by actors with commentary from professionals who see these cases every day: an estate planning lawyer, a geriatrician, a capacity assessment specialist, and a researcher whose doctoral work focused on loneliness in older adults.
Together, they expose how undue influence actually works. How charm, patience, and calculated lies can turn a trusted new friend into a captor. How family members, doctors, police and financial institutions all try to help, and how often that help arrives too late. And most importantly, what warning signs to watch for, and what to do when you see them.
Elder financial abuse exists in every community. It is rarely a single phone scam. More often it is the slow, deliberate theft of everything a person has worked a lifetime to build. Better informed families, friends and neighbours can make a real difference.
Ten episodes. New episodes are released weekly.
Beware Mysterious Mark is a Radio Sidney production. This project is funded in part by the Government of Canada's New Horizons for Seniors Program.
Show notes, episode transcripts and resources: themarkdoc.ca
Contact: info@radiosidney.ca
Episodes
15 episodes
He Makes Me Do Things I Don't Want To
When 90-year-old Bert Cooper meets the charismatic Mark Marshall, he believes he's found a kindred spirit, a worldly, accomplished friend full of stories. His wife Diane, senses that something is off. His only child, daughter Brooke, finds the ...
Expert Charlotte Salomon
In this special bonus episode of Beware the Mysterious Mark, producer Bill Collins sits down with Victoria lawyer Charlotte Salomon of Infinity Law, a board member of the Estate Planning Council of Victoria, for an in-depth conversatio...
I'd Be Honoured To Change Your Dad's Nappies
With Diane gone Bert is grieving and lonely. Mark and his partner Donna step into the void lavishing attention on the elderly widower while making increasingly bold offers to move in take over his care and be the family he needs. Brooke is hear...
Trailer 2
A friendly new face. A little too helpful. A little too close to Dad.Beware Mysterious Mark is the audio drama about the kind of danger that doesn't break in. It gets invited. As Mark delves deeper into one family's life, the peop...
Expert Nathan Spaling
In this special bonus episode of Beware the Mysterious Mark, featuring Nathan Spaling, a lawyer and registered social service worker, founder of the Capacity Clinic and a co-founding member of the Canadian Centre for Decision-Making Capacity. N...
That Guy's Stalking Your Dad!
Bert's geriatric psychiatrist tells Brooke that Mark is a sociopath, and she's in for a long fight. Days later, a notary calls out of the blue. Mark brought Bert into her office to change his will and revoke Brooke's Power of Attorney. The prof...
Expert Eric Partridge
Loneliness is where the predator gets in.In this extended bonus conversation, Bill Collins sits down with Dr. Eric Partridge, a priest in the Anglican Diocese of British Columbia whose doctoral research examined the impact of gratitude p...
I Don't Want to Live With Them
Mark and Donna begin maneuvering Bert toward buying them a house, first one property, then another, then another. Brooke is expected to participate financially but when she pushes back, the next scheme appears. Bert privately admits he doesn't ...
Mark Doesn't Have a Dime
Constable Fredericks of the RCMP arrives at Poplar Hill after quietly investigating Mark Marshall's background. He spends an hour with Bert, gently outlining the warning signs of elder financial abuse, then alerts Brooke of his concerns and gal...
Brooke, I Want You To Have This House
Bert tells Brooke he wants her to have Poplar Hill, the family home her mother left her, and offers a deal: remove his name from the deed if Brooke does the same with their joint banking account. Brooke can hear Mark's voice in every twist of t...
Mr. Marshall, You're Not a Charity
Psychiatrist Dr. Becker writes a single sentence on hospital letterhead that should change everything: Albert Cooper is incapable of financial decision-making. For a moment, Brooke and Nancy believe they've finally won. But Mark is already at w...
I Cannot Put Words in Order Anymore
At a meeting with his psychiatrist, Bert says quietly: 'I cannot put words in the order anymore.' The cognitive decline is obvious. While the family struggles to process what's happening, Donna maneuvers her way onto the title of Poplar Hill, t...
Your Father's Bank Account Has About Nine Hundred Alerts!
Bert's bank manager reveals that they have placed hundreds of fraud alerts on Bert's accounts to protect his assets from elder financial abuse. Mark has Bert buy a recreational vehicle for him, under the guise of emergency housing. Bert lies to...
I Could Do Without Mark
Mark and Donna have a second driveway carved through Poplar Hill's woods without permits or Brooke's signature. The municipality halts the work; Mark blames everyone but himself. Letters fly between lawyers, as Mark predicts that 'the laws of k...
