Naughty Grandma! That was NOT your money to gamble away!

A grandmother wanted in Northwest Indiana for stealing her grandson’s $97,000 college fund remains at large, believed by authorities to be on the lam in Minden, La. Her vengeance-seeking son-in-law demands her extradition, but a Catch-22 prevents police in both states from apprehending her.

Edna Sue Pate, 73, stands accused of having looted her grandson’s college trust fund—of which she was sole trustee—then gambling it all away.

In 2011, as Christian Smith’s graduation from high school approached, his father, Thomas Smith, sought to contact Pate about the account. When she did not respond, he started getting worried. He brought a civil suit against her, demanding an accounting of the trust. When that, too, went unanswered, local law enforcement issued a warrant for Pate’s arrest.

James Sibley, a Griffith police detective working on the case, in May filed an affidavit laying out the facts: Between 2004 and 2007 Pate had withdrawn some $97,000 in checks payable to cash. Records kept by the Majestic Star II Casino in Gary showed that Pate had incurred some $93,000 in gambling losses. She has been charged by the Criminal Division of Lake County Superior Court with four counts of theft.

Grandma Pate is believed to be living in Louisiana. Believed, but not verified. Louisiana doesn’t want to go to the trouble of locating and arresting Pate unless it knows Indiana will take her off its hands. And Indiana doesn’t want to go get her, since that would require a special expenditure of money and effort.

Smith is organizing a fund raiser to pay for the cost of sending Indiana officials to Louisiana to go get her. In the meantime, Granny Pate is living free while her grandson ponders how to now pay for an education.

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http://abcnews.go.com/Business/fugitive-grandma-edna-sue-pate-large-due-catch/story?id=16656315#.T-ulHRee4bI