In an outrageous case coming out of Malibu, California, a California couple has been charged with a litany of crimes relating to the death of a bipolar eye surgeon.
Anna Moore, 39, and Anthony Flores, 46, have been accused of stealing nearly $3 million from 57-year-old Dr. Mark Sawusch before his death in 2018. The couple allegedly kept Sawusch on weekly ketamine injections for nearly a year before his death.
The story starts with the couple meeting Sawusch at an ice cream parlor near Venice Beach in June 2017. Just two weeks earlier, the New York Post reported, Sawusch was released from a mental rehabilitation center after he had tried to commit suicide.
The trio hit it off and soon Sawusch invited them to move into his beachfront house without paying rent and referred to them as his “personal 911” and “best friends.”
But Sawusch had a history of manic episodes, which had caused him to be hospitalized and jailed multiple times. He had been struggling with depression for years, but in 2015 he went to the UCLA Medical Center in Santa Monica saying he needed help. This ended up being the first of eight hospitalizations for extreme bipolar disorder.
After just three weeks of having Flores and Moore live with him, Sawusch called the police to escort the couple from his home after he had been arrested for battery.
Soon, however, the couple came back into Sawusch‘s life and allegedly began giving him LSD, which caused his health to rapidly deteriorate. They also allegedly hired six massage therapists to provide him with 12 hours of massage treatments a day and withdrew money from his accounts and put it into their own.
Two weeks before Sawusch died, Flores and Moore allegedly began giving him LSD, which caused his health to rapidly deteriorate. They allegedly watched him through dozens of surveillance cameras installed in the home, but only called the police after massage therapists found Sawusch dead.
The couple, who have since broken up, told the Times they acted in Sawusch’s best interest and tried to help him through his disorder, but were indicted in February and charged with conspiracy, identity theft, mail fraud, money laundering, and more.
This case highlights the dangers of being too trusting and the importance of knowing who you are with, no matter how nice they may seem.
