Weight Reveals Fraud

A man claiming to be John Vieira, Jr. brought a will to a notary for notarization on August 21, 2000.  Later, it was discovered that John had actually died on August 11, 2000.  It turned out that the notary did not “see dead people.”  Instead, evidence showed that his mother was somehow involved with the deception because the new “will” left John’s estate to his parents rather than his minor daughter.  The notary explained that the man claiming to be John had produced evidence of his identity but she now realized that the man who appeared before her was not John.  The main reason (other than John being dead) was that John weighed 300 pounds but the man claiming to be John was about half that weight.

This Connecticut case is discussed in ‘Dead Man’ Slims Down for Appearance Before Notary, Notary Bulletin, Feb. 2005, at 8.