A 61-year-old former Coupeville woman who scammed an elderly Alzheimer’s patient was sentenced in federal court this month to nearly four years in prison and ordered to pay more than $2 million in restitution.

Shea Saenger pleaded guilty last summer to mail fraud. A federal judge sentenced her on Jan. 6 to 46 months in a federal prison followed by three years of supervised release.

Saenger admitted to defrauding a retired eye doctor named Norman Butler of his life savings by starting an online relationship with him, falsely representing that she was single and wanted to marry him, and then tricking and bullying him into sending her money.

The victim’s son, Douglas Butler, has been working with federal officials, private investigators and attorneys over the last two years to bring Saenger to justice and recover as much as the money as possible.

Butler, who lives in Ellensburg near his father, was in court for the sentencing hearing. He said he was pleased that Saenger received a little more time than he expected, but he felt it was nowhere near what she deserved.

Butler said he was especially upset with Saenger’s sentencing memorandum, in which she claims she didn’t target Butler because of his vulnerability, but truly cared for him. She claimed she thought he had an endless amount of money and she’s sad that his life savings are depleted so completely that he now has to live in a nursing home.

“Shea Saenger’s self serving drivel in that document has triggered more anger on my part than anything else she has done,” Butler wrote in his response. “This memo is full of both big and little lies which I see as another example of her inability to tell even a token amount of truth.”

U.S. District Judge Richard A. Jones told Saenger that her “greed superseded your professed concern for the victim. The only real love interest you had was for his bank account (and) lust for unlimited access to his wealth.”

Butler said his father is doing OK. He’s suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and lost his short-term memory, but his condition has stabilized.

Saenger sent nearly all the money she scammed from the elderly Butler   to relatives in Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana. Butler has filed four civil lawsuits against her different relatives to recoup some of the money, but there have been counterclaims accusing Butler of libel related to his website, www.butlervsaenger.com, that documents the case.

“We’ll get whatever we can ring out of them in civil suits,” he said, adding he never expects to reclaim the entire $2 million.

Butler said the U.S. Attorney’s Office is also working to find the money. A default judgment of forfeiture was filed in federal court for a home in Mississippi which belonged to a relative who received money from Saenger.

Saenger was ordered to pay back the $2 million over the next 20 years, but she currently has nothing and her future job prospects are probably not great. She admitted in her sentencing memorandum that she sent the vast majority of the money to family members in “a shortsighted attempt to win their respect and affection.”

Butler’s private investigator discovered that Saenger is a convicted murderer. In the 1980s, Saenger was convicted of second-degree murder in Arkansas in the stabbing death of a man. Saenger’s name at the time was Sharon Lumpkin; she changed her name and Social Security number after serving time in prison, according to documents provided by the private investigator.

In the recent federal fraud case, Saenger used deception to persuade the elderly victim to send her money. She struck up an online relationship with him in 2005, about 10 months after his wife had died. She falsely represented that she was single and available for a romantic relationship when, in fact, she was married and living in a Coupeville mobile home park with her husband.

Over the course of several years, Saenger invented multiple stories to get the victim to send her money. She said she would marry him if he would help her with financial needs. She requested and received large amounts of money for an uncle who did not exist, for surgeries she never had and did not need, and for her purchase of a car. She knew he suffered from memory problems and would tell him he had not sent her a check when he had already sent significant amounts of money.

Butler said he’s content that Saenger is now in prison, but he still has a lot of work to do to find justice.

“This has consumed two years of my life,” he said, “and I don’t expect it to end for at least a year or two.”