Betty Dyke alone and in squalor
By Norrie Ross
October 31, 2008
MILLIONAIRE spinster Betty Dyke was so desperate to end her days in her own home with her beloved animals that she gave neighbours $1.2 million to look after her.
But, less than 18-months later, she was found confused and demented, tangled in a fence on her Mt Martha property and covered in faeces and abrasions, the Supreme Court heard yesterday.
A friend of 30 years said the three neighbouring couples, who later inherited $5 million each in Ms Dyke's will, had done nothing to comply with the lonely old woman's wishes.
Judith Bailey, of Ballarat, became emotional as she described the appalling living conditions she found when she visited Ms Dyke in her run-down fibro farm house.
There were dog faeces and urine on the floor, the kitchen where the old lady lived was filthy and she prepared her meals on an old vinyl mat, where she also prepared food for her dogs and birds.
Ms Bailey said she was angry, because Ms Dyke had given Tim and Denise Knaggs, Robert and Sandra Allen, and Gary and Diane Smith more than $1 million from the sale of 8ha of land as an incentive to help her stay in her home.
Ms Bailey accused them of gross negligence, and said that when she visited Ms Dyke they were rarely around.
The court heard Ms Dyke never got her wish and she died in 2004 in a nursing home, aged 84.
"What did she give them the money for?" Ms Bailey said.
"She was not a fool. Betty was not a person who threw money around. What she wanted was to live in her house for the rest of her life. These people took $1.2 million and nothing was done."
Ms Bailey and her husband, John, a second cousin of Ms Dyke, and three charities are contesting wills made by the spinster in 1999 and 2001 that left the bulk of the estate to the couples.
They have asked the court to revoke probate and to grant probate on her original 1985 document.
It is claimed that because of her dementia, ill-health and over-use of painkillers Ms Dyke did not have the capacity to make the wills and was subject to undue influence from her neighbours.
The hearing continues today.
SOURCE: The Herald Sun
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