A 60-year-old Coupeville woman accused of conning an elderly Alzheimer’s patient out of more than $2 million was charged with mail fraud in federal court July 1.

Shea Saenger, a convicted murderer, lived with her husband in a Coupeville mobile home park for older adults, but has been in the Kittitas County jail for contempt of court since Jan. 10. She refused to comply with a judge’s ruling that ordered her to answer questions about what she did with all the ill-begotten money.

Federal prosecutors accused Saenger of scheming to defraud an 82-year-old retired eye doctor named Norman Butler out of his life savings by starting an online relationship with him and falsely representing that she was single and wanted to marry him.

The victim’s son, Douglas Butler, said federal prosecutors told him that Saenger has agreed to a plea bargain and will likely plead guilty to the single count next Thursday. The prosecution will recommend a sentence of no less than 46 months in prison.

Douglas Butler said he’s happy that she was charged, but it’s hard to be satisfied with any sentence.

“After what’s she’s done to our family, I think she ought to be locked up forever,” he said. “But I also know judges don’t give long sentences for white-collar crime.”

Saenger allegedly conned the elder Butler, an Ellensberg resident, into sending her nearly $2.2 million over a five-year period. She talked him into sending her checks for an ailing “Uncle Jimbo” and for her breast cancer treatments, but she had neither an Uncle Jimbo or breast cancer, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Saenger was charged with mail fraud because she would routinely give Butler self-addressed stamped envelopes to mail her checks and she also wrote to him to ask for money, court documents indicate. Special agents from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service served a search warrant on her home last December.

According to the charging information, Saenger is also known as Sharon Ann Lumpkin, Sharon Ann Miller and Shea Miller. Back when she was Sharon Lumpkin, she was convicted of second-degree murder in Arkansas in 1987 for stabbing a man to death and was sentenced to 15 years in prison; she served eight years.

Saenger’s attorney did not return a call for comment.

Since discovering the alleged fraud a few years ago, Douglas Butler has dedicated his life to bringing Saenger to justice and tracking down the money. He successfully sued her in Kittitas County Superior Court for financially exploiting a vulnerable adult, but she refused to help him recover the money.

Butler said Saenger sent most of the money to relatives in three southern states, though she did spend some of it on herself. She brought a mobile home in Coupeville and a couple of vehicles with the money, he claimed.

In fact, Butler said Saenger’s husband, Art Saenger of Coupeville, agreed to sign over the home and his truck to Butler’s trust. He will be able to live in the home and use the truck until he dies, but then it will belong to the Butlers.

Art Saenger also filed to divorce his wife. She was evicted from the mobile home park, Butler said.

“I truly believe that Art Saenger was Shea’s second victim and my father was her third,” Butler said.

As part of the plea bargain in federal court, Bishop said Saenger will be forced to forfeit all the money she took, but it’s really a meaningless action since she didn’t keep the money. Even after receiving more than $2 million, Saenger continued to live on her husband’s military pension and sent most of the money to relatives.

Bishop said he was able to track down where most of the money went by subpoenaing Saenger’s bank records, but her relatives refuse to pay it back. He currently has lawsuits in Arkansas against her brother and a niece, as well as a lawsuit in Mississippi against her sister and a nephew. In addition, he plans to file a lawsuit against another sister in Louisiana.

As for his father, Butler said the elderly man moved into an assisted living home a few months ago, but is doing well. His deterioration due to Alzheimer’s disease has seemed to stabilize.

Butler said he didn’t hide the court cases from his father, but the older man is unaware of it all.

“He doesn’t remember giving any money to Shea,” he said. “He still thinks he has money in the bank and thinks he manages his own money, neither of which are true.”