After October neglect arrest, Hialeah police accuse woman of draining disabled mom’s ‘life savings’

HIALEAH, Fla. — The October arrest of a woman after her disabled mother, then 77, was found eating her own feces led Hialeah Police Department detectives to discover that she was also taking financial advantage of the senior, draining her “life savings,” authorities said.

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Police said that led to a new arrest of Janet Edwards, 49, on multiple felony charges on Friday.

An HPD arrest warrant states that Edwards, who has addresses in Hialeah and Miami Beach, had power-of-attorney over the now-78-year-old, who suffers from severe cognitive impairment.

According to the warrant, detectives began the financial probe after Edwards’ own daughter ― who became the senior’s court-appointed guardian ― “discovered multiple bank statements which indicated large withdrawals and electronic transfers from (the victim’s) bank accounts beginning in 2023‚” following Edwards’ initial arrest on Oct. 21, 2025.

Investigators said in June 2024, Edwards sold her mother’s Hialeah home, netting more than $462,000 from the deal. The warrant states that Edwards moved more than $250,000 of that to her own accounts and also spent more than $24,000 of her mother’s money to buy a pickup truck.

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Authorities said she also forged her mother’s signature on more than $15,000 in life insurance payouts and posed as her mother on phone calls with the insurance company.

Edwards, who court records show has a long history of arrests in Miami-Dade County, is now facing additional charges of elderly exploitation, grand theft from a person 65 or older, organized scheme to defraud and identity theft.

As of Monday morning, she was being held in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on a $55,000 bond.

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