FULTON COUNTY -- A Gloversville woman pleaded guilty on Tuesday, months after her mother's decomposed body was found.
Mary Kersting, 60, of Gloversville was indicted by a grand jury in March. The indictment alleged she collected social security and pension payments in her mother, Hope Ruller's, name after she had died. On Tuesday, she pleaded guilty and agreed to spend six months in jail and five years on probation. She will also pay $14,096 in restitution.
Kersting was charged with Grand Larceny in the 3rd Degree, Petit Larceny, Unlawfully Disposing of a Dead Body of a Human Being and Endangering the Welfare of an Incompetent or Physically Disabled Person in the 1st Degree.
Gloversville Police Chief Donald VanDeusen said his investigators believe Ruller died in October of 2013. They were called to the home in December after Ruller's granddaughter tried to visit her. Police said Kersting continued to live in the apartment above her mother's.
Fulton County District Attorney Louise Sira said Kersting is accused of not getting her mother proper medical attention from January 2013 to October 2013. She said Kersting isolated her mother and prevented her from receiving care and support from family as well.
The indictment also alleges Kersting took $13,296 in Social Security payments and $844.50 in pension payments in her mother's name.
District Attorney Sira said Ruller's body was too badly decomposed, so an autopsy couldn't determine a cause of death. But she said there was no evidence of blunt force trauma or a penetrating injury.
