Wife accused of dismembering man's body in Pa., collecting benefits
LAS VEGAS, Nev. - A 69-year-old Las Vegas woman is accused of defrauding Social Security for years after she allegedly dismembered her dead husband’s body and threw his remains in the trash, according to a federal criminal complaint.
Nancy Shedleski deposited $121,000 of her husband's retirement benefits after his 2015 death, and Social Security officials didn't know anything was wrong until they received an anonymous tip in 2019 that the husband had disappeared, according to the complaint filed last week in Nevada.
The complaint, which charged Shedleski with theft of government money, identified the husband only as "J.P.S." and said he was in his 70s when he died.
Survivor benefits for Shedleski in 2019 if her husband’s death had been reported would have been $14,000, but her husband’s benefits that were distributed that year totaled $24,000, the complaint said.
When contacted by federal officials, Shedleski initially said her husband was traveling, but she later admitted to dismembering his body and disposing of his remains after he died at their Pennsylvania home, the complaint said.
"Shedleski confirmed there was no ambulance, no hospitalization, no funeral, no burial and no cremation," the complaint said.
The complaint did not specify the husband's cause of death or say where the couple lived in Pennsylvania before Nancy Shedleski moved to Las Vegs in 2017.
The complaint said her husband last received medical care in 2015 at Jefferson Regional Medical Center in Jefferson Hills, which is near Pittsburgh.
Shedleski was arrested last Thursday and appeared in court in Las Vegas on Friday. She was not asked to enter a plea and was released on her own recognizance pending a Nov. 5 court hearing.
Her court-appointed lawyer, Wendi Overmyer, did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment on Shedleski's behalf.