Woman Names Elian's Relatives in Disputed Will
O K L A H O M A C I T Y, Aug. 27 -- Relatives of a woman who killed herself inJuly are suing to prevent her $500,000 estate from going to theMiami relatives of Elian Gonzalez and to a Massachusetts familyaccused in a child-abuse case.
The relatives of Anne Katherine Abernathy, 57, claim in alawsuit that she had been mentally incapacitated in the yearsleading up to her death July 20 from a self-inflicted gunshot justhours after her mother died of natural causes.
Abernathy had been living in Shawnee, Okla. with her ailing91-year-old mother for two years when her mother died.
In a four-page note written just before she killed herself,Abernathy deleted 12 people from her will — mostly relatives — andpraised the Gonzalezes because they “treated Elian with suchlove.”
She wrote: “To give away freedom for power is hollow andtragic. ... May God, such as He is, bless and care for America —what’s left of it.”
Police found Abernathy’s body and that of her mother the nextday.
Checking Letters
Manny Diaz, a Miami attorney representing Elian’s great-uncle,Lazaro Gonzalez, said the family would not discuss the matterpublicly, but were checking hundreds of letters to see whetherAbernathy had written to them.
Elian’s Miami relatives were thrust into the national spotlightduring their seven-month battle to keep the Cuban boy in the UnitedStates. The boy was rescued after a boat carrying him from Cubawrecked at sea, killing his mother and others.
In June, Elian was returned to his father, who took the boyback to Cuba.
In the letter, Abernathy also referred to the Massachusetts sexabuse case of the Amirault family as a “scam” and targeted themfor a portion of her estate.
The mother, daughter and son of the Amirault family were chargedin 1984 with raping and assaulting children at a day care they ranin Malden, Mass.
Child witnesses made wild-sounding claims in court of robotsspeaking, animals being tortured, and children being hung naked ontrees in front of classmates, but a jury convicted the Amiraults in1986.
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