By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
An appeals court has upheld the insurance fraud conviction of Jennifer M. Mau, a Morton woman best known for her private endeavors to search for missing children in high profile cases.
Mau, then 30, and her boyfriend David Eden, then 47, were found guilty in September 2010 of making a false insurance claim involving a U-Haul trailer they said leaked and damaged their belongings during a move from Centralia to Morton three years earlier.
According to the findings issued by the Washington State Court of Appeals, Mau was told the loss from rain and water damage was not covered under the protections she had purchased but told to make a report to U-Haul’s insurance company anyhow.
Mau provided a seven-page list of items totaling approximately $16,000, but said they had taken the damaged items to the dump, according to the decision.
The claims administrator found it suspicious and the claim was denied, according to the decision.
Mau testified it was her understanding it was a preliminary list of items that potentially could have been damaged.
Her appeals attorney argued the list was not made under a contract of insurance. Eden’s appeal involved a denial he was an accomplice. The panel of three judges disagreed in their opinion issued on Tuesday.
The crime is a class C felony, which prosecutors said at the time of conviction could mean up to 12 months in jail.
Mau, a criminal justice student, was founder of the Mount St. Helens Chapter of a Texas-based group called Guardians of the Children, an organization she said helped with abused and missing kids.
In the summer of 2010, she organized volunteer searchers who eventually found the body of a missing 16-year-old Morton boy with the help of a Portland psychic.
A 21-year-old friend of Austin King was subsequently convicted of manslaughter in his death.
Mau, who has since started a different group called Search and Seek, indicates she will appeal the decision.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
This does not surprise me. If you google her name, she has her hands into every sticky situation around Morton. I think she’s an attention driven maniac. I feel very sorry for all those who have fallen victim to her schemes. I hope that justice prevails and she spends some time in jail.