Categories: News, Schenectady County

Mary Kersting, daughter of the 93-year-old woman found dead in her Gloversville apartment in late December, has been charged with grand larceny after police say she kept her mother’s body hidden for up to 14 months to collect her Social Security benefits.

Kersting, 60, was arraigned Thursday morning in Fulton County Court by Judge Polly Hoye on charges of third-degree grand larceny, petty larceny, unlawfully disposing of a dead body and endangering the welfare of an incompetent or physically disabled person. Fulton County District Attorney Louise K. Sira said Kersting could face up to seven years in prison if convicted of those charges. Kersting was arraigned in Fulton County Court and pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Sira said she does not expect any further charges in the case.

“This is it in terms of the charges,” she said. “The matter has been thoroughly investigated by police, the District Attorney’s Office, the medical examiner, and it’s been presented to a grand jury, and these are their findings.”

According to police, Kersting kept the body of her mother, Hope B. Ruller, in a bed in a downstairs apartment at 50 James St. while Kersting lived upstairs with her 21-year-old son. The son is not facing any charges.

The indictment alleges Kersting collected $13,296 in Social Security benefits between October 2013 and December 2014, as well as $844 from Ruller’s pension.

Sira said cases like this are “unfortunately not that rare,” noting a similar case in 2003 in which a woman’s body was kept in a Rubbermaid container while a family member collected her Social Security benefits.

“That’s 10 years between them, but it’s two too many in my time here,” she said. “What’s troublesome and so bothersome to everyone in these cases is that someone is fortunate enough to live to the age of 93 and they receive no dignity in death, and that’s at the hand of their own family members.”

Assistant District Attorney Chad Brown said the court froze $15,000 in Kersting’s assets and released her on $25,000 bail. A court date has not yet been set.

Police found Ruller’s badly decomposed body Dec. 29 after concerned family members asked police to check on her welfare, said Gloversville Police Chief Donald VanDeusen.

“[Her granddaughter] wanted to visit her for the holidays,” he said. “She went over to see her grandmother [and] she was turned away [by Kersting]. This wasn’t the first time she was turned away with no real explanation other than ‘She doesn’t feel well, she can’t take visitors at this time,’ and she decided that it was time to come down and get some assistance.”

An autopsy performed at Albany Medical Center could not establish a cause of death due to the state of the body, but no evidence of blunt force trauma or penetrating wounds was found, he said.





Kersting had been her mother’s caretaker, officials said, and repeatedly turned away other family members who tried to visit. Sira said Ruller was deaf and suffered from vision loss and dementia, leaving her totally dependent on Kersting.

Kersting’s brother, 73-year-old Thomas Ruller, lives in Gloversville, but said he’d been estranged from Kersting and his mother for years after a rift over finances involving Kersting, her mother and Kersting’s five siblings.

He said he was “not at all” surprised by the accusations of theft.

“Mary’s not a very good person,” he said Thursday. “Never has been.”

He said he and his siblings are now contesting his mother’s will, in which the house was left to Kersting, executor of the will.

The family held a graveside burial in Gloversville two months ago, he said, laying his mother to rest beside her late husband. Kersting did not attend, he said.

A previous version of this story gave the wrong age of Hope B. Ruller. She was 93.