A federal grand jury in North Texas has charged three members of a family that ran unlicensed boarding homes with lying to mortgage lenders after allegedly taking control of a 79-year-old resident’s longtime Garland home, selling it to two of themselves and funneling more than $156,000 of the proceeds through several accounts. The indictment, returned August 26, 2026, was announced by U.S. Attorney Ryan Raybould of the Northern District of Texas on September 13. A fourth relative is charged separately with stealing a deceased resident’s Social Security benefits. The defendants are presumed innocent.
How prosecutors say the Garland home was sold
The home-sale case names Donella Locke, Suekya Whitney, also known as Suekya Locke, and Shakoya Crenshaw, also known as Shakoya Locke. According to the indictment, the family operated unlicensed boarding homes across North Texas that housed elderly and disabled residents, and the defendants used their positions of trust over those residents to carry out financial exploitation and fraudulent property transactions.
Prosecutors allege the three obtained power of attorney over a 79-year-old woman identified only as W.S., who was living in one of their boarding homes. They then allegedly orchestrated the sale of her longtime Garland residence to Whitney and Crenshaw. More than $156,000 in proceeds from that sale was funneled through multiple accounts, the indictment alleges, before $147,000 was transferred to Donella Locke.
Locke then allegedly used the money to buy a new home, describing the funds to lenders as a “cash gift” from her daughter. The defendants also allegedly told Capital Fund 1 and CrossCountry Mortgage that the real estate transactions were arm’s-length deals and that Locke’s money was a legitimate gift. The indictment says the defendants knew those statements were false, because the transactions involved close family members and the money came from the sale of W.S.’s property…