Aida Corey and her family stuck together for most of her nine decades. Her children worked at the profitable factory her husband built, and they shared family meals almost every evening.

But family bonds began to unravel in the early 2000s when death and dementia struck.

After her husband died, her children grew so alarmed by her erratic behavior that they sought to have her declared incompetent. That led to lawsuits lasting for years as lawyers battled over her mental status.

A startling discovery in 2008 showed just how estranged the elderly widow had become from her children. When lawyers and armed guards entered her mansion on a 9-acre estate in Aurora, they found wads of $100 bills totaling $3.1 million stuffed in dresser drawers, a nightstand and other furniture. They even found cash in a bathroom.

Her onetime driver and groundskeeper told The Buffalo News that she hid the money because she no longer trusted her children. Two months later, when she was taken to Mercy Hospital after falling and gashing her head, the attendants in the emergency department found $14,000 in cash pinned inside her clothing.