Our top life insurance attorneys would like to share some infamous denied life insurance claim cases due to homicide or involving fraud:
- Isaac Aguigui: He was convicted of murdering his pregnant wife and her unborn child to collect $400,000 in life insurance benefits and $100,000 for funeral costs. He also planned to use the money to fund a terrorist group.
- Julia Merfeld: She was sentenced to 5-20 years in prison for soliciting the murder of her husband to cash in on his $400,000 life insurance policy. She was caught on tape by an undercover detective who pretended to be a hitman.
- Molly and Clayton Daniels: They tried to fake Clayton’s death by digging up a body from a cemetery, dressing it in his clothes and staging a car accident. They hoped to collect $110,000 in life insurance benefits, but the scheme was exposed by DNA testing.
- John and Anne Darwin: They faked John’s death in a canoeing accident to claim £250,000 in life insurance and pension payouts. John hid in their home for five years while Anne pretended to be a widow. They were caught when John resurfaced in Panama with a fake identity.
- Michael Malloy: He was the target of a murder plot by five men who took out life insurance policies on him. They tried to kill him by poisoning his drinks, exposing him to cold, running him over with a car and injecting him with poison. He survived all these attempts until they finally suffocated him with a gas hose.
- Ruthann Aron: She was a former politician who hired a hitman to kill her husband and a lawyer who had sued her. She wanted to collect $500,000 in life insurance benefits and avoid paying a $750,000 settlement. She was arrested after the hitman turned out to be an undercover officer.
- Mark Weinberger: He was a surgeon who staged his own disappearance while on vacation with his wife. He left behind $6 million in debts and $5 million in malpractice claims. He also had several life insurance policies worth $2 million. He was found living in a tent on an Italian mountain after five years on the run.
- Narcy Novack: She was convicted of orchestrating the murders of her husband and his mother to inherit their $10 million estate and collect $1 million in life insurance benefits. She hired two hitmen who beat them to death with dumbbells in separate incidents.
- Herman Rockefeller: He was a millionaire businessman who led a double life as a swinger. He was killed by a couple who lured him into a sex trap and then bludgeoned him with a hammer. They dismembered his body and burned it in a barrel. His wife tried to claim his $4.9 million life insurance policy but was denied because he died while committing adultery.
- Dalia Dippolito: She was caught on camera hiring an undercover cop to kill her husband of six months. She wanted to get rid of him and collect his $250,000 life insurance policy. She also tried to poison him with antifreeze and hire another hitman before she was arrested.