What did Heather Mook do with the money?

Freda Mook, who is her mid-eighties, made a profit of £35,000 when she sold her house and moved in with her son, John, and his wife. She also had £8,000 in savings.

But between December 12, 2003, and November 16, 2005, her daughter-in-law cleared out Freda Mook's investments and bank account.

In late 2005, Freda Mook moved into a private nursing home and Mr Mook hoped her savings would pay the fees. But his wife had already taken the lot.

Police efforts to track down the money have so far drawn a blank.

Heather Mook refused to answer any questions about what she did with her mother-in-law's funds, just as she refused to answer questions about how she stole them.

"They certainly haven't been hidden in any assets we have seen," said Det Insp Nigel Costello of York CID.

"We needed some assistance from her. She has maybe squandered it on holidays or perhaps even had a debt from before she met Mr Mook that we never knew about."

The nursing home wanted paying and Mr Mooks began to wonder why the bills were not being met.

By August, 2006, Heather Mook had decided she needed to distract him from her thefts, and she started feeding him anti-depressant, making him tired and confused.

Whenever he was due to meet solicitors or financial men to discuss his mother's affairs, she poisoned him. The poisoning was so frequent that Mr Mook's hair samples taken in early 2007 had amitriptyline deposits from root to tip.

By January 2007, the nursing home bill had reached £21,000. Heather Mook faked a doctor's instruction and gave him enough tablets to put him in hospital with severe symptoms including hallucinations. When his daughters saw her give him yet more tablets in hospital, they called in police. But Mr Mook still has to pay the £21,000 bill and is in negotiations with the companies that held or invested his mother's money to see if he can get some of it back.

Freda Mook has had to move out of the private nursing home into a local authority home.