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- A homeless woman, Cathy Boone, died while hundreds of thousands of unclaimed money was held in the state bank.
- Boone's mother died in 2016, and her mother's estate tried to contact her multiple times but failed, KGW reported.
- When Boone couldn't be reached, the money was held at the Oregon Department of State Lands.
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A homeless woman in Oregan died while nearly $900,000 of inherited funds was being held by the state, according to KGW.
According to the report, Cathy Boone, 49, was homeless in Astoria, Oregon before she died last January. Her father, Jack Spithill, told KGW that Boone had a hard time throughout her adult life.
"I attribute it almost all to drugs, but I think she also had some mental health issues and the combination of the two didn't work out for her very well," Spithall told the outlet.
However in 2016, after her mother died, she relapsed and started using drugs again, adding that Boone was not in contact with family or friends at the time, according to the report.
Representatives handling her mother's estate made multiple efforts to get in contact with Boone, but they fell short, according to KGW. Therefore, in 2019, her $884,407 inheritance was transferred to the Oregon Department of State Lands, the report said.
"It just didn't make any sense to me," Spithill told the outlet. "That money was just sitting there, and she needed help in the worst way."
"Given a year and a half of effort taken by the personal representative and the attorney for this particular estate, there really isn't much more that the state could do," Claudia Ciobanu, an Oregon State Lands spokesperson, told KGW. "This is a unique case and we sympathize with the family."
The Department of State Lands issued 884,000 to Cathy Boone's estate in October and her representation is working to determine who will be granted the money, according to KGW.