Monday, July 9, 2012

Identity Theft: Paul Gruber and Darryl Kuehl

 Here is another case of stolen identity. This happens much more often than one may think.

Idaho

Shellie Kepley, came in from Reno to check on her father Paul Gruber. She suspected that something was wrong because she had not seen or heard from her father in a month. He was only 54 years old and very wealthy. She called her father, but could not reach him. She had received some greeting cards from her father, but noticed that the signature seemed forged.

Darryl Kuehl


When the police arrived at the victim's home, they found plastic covers on the furniture. They discovered a computer missing, guns missing, and the safe was missing.  There appeared to be no one living there, but all of his accounts were still active. The detectives found out that he had been paying the mortgage for a man named Darryl Kuehl. When police contacted Darryl Kuehl he explained that he was a contractor who had done some work for Paul, and that Paul was an investor in his new business. Instead of paying cash, he paid his mortgage instead. Sherry said that her father would never agree to do such an agreement. Kuehl was asked to review a photo of Paul, and he stated that he didn't recognize him and that the man that he had been dealing with must have been an imposter.  He was asked to describe Paul Gruber, and the sketch artist had a picture of someone who looked completely different.


Police investigator's checked surveillance video at Gruber's post office box, and they could see Darryl Kuehl standing outside the p.o. box. He had been picking up Gruber's mail, and stealing money out of his accounts. A search was done on Kuehl's home where they found many items that belonged to Gruber. They wanted to arrest him for theft and forgery, but had no body. Upon inspecting the victim's home again police found a crawl space. They started digging beneath the crawl space of Gruber's home where they found his body. He was found 17 months later wrapped in an air mattress. He had been shot six times. Kuehl had tried to steal his identity, A DNA analysis at the crime lab confirmed that Kuehl's saliva was on the stamps.  Darryl Robin Kuehl was found guilty of theft forgery and murder. He was sentenced to over 50 years in prison.

2 comments:

  1. Just saw this on netflix, really sad.
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  2. Wow, often times photos this old or original of a convicted killer, one shown on Forensic Files (If I Were You) are not found online or by Google-search. And the photos that CAN be found are often identical to ones seen on Forensic Files or are photos of the killer taken during conviction - mugshots. But not original/old AND not seen on Forensic Files. I would consider this photo an example.

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