A Toms River certified home health aide was arrested and charged with theft after a three week long investigation revealed that she had pawned jewelry belonging to an elderly Whiting resident with whom she had been employed to provide aide services. Arrested and charged on Friday was 35-year-old, Soraya Rivera-Darley of Toms River.
On December 13, 2017, Cpl. Richard Chevrier responded to a residence in the Cedar Glen Lakes section of the township for the report of theft. Upon arrival, Cpl. Chevrier met the elderly female homeowner who reported that jewelry with an estimated value of approximately $5,000 had been stolen from her residence. With no other possible suspects, the victim identified Rivera-Darley as the person who may have been responsible for the theft. The victim advised Cpl. Chevrier that Rivera-Darley had only been her home health aide since late November.
After the report was taken, the case was assigned to Det. Craig Beaulieu of the department’s Investigations Bureau for follow-up. During the investigation, Detective Beaulieu conducted checks of a regional data pawn sharing system and observed suspicious jewelry sale transactions made by Soraya Rivera-Darley. The transactions took place during the weeks that she was performing her duties at the victim’s residence. While comparing those items sold to those reported stolen, a match appeared to have made. As such, the victim viewed twenty-five pieces of jewelry sold by Rivera-Darley. In doing so, the victim positively identified the pawned items as being her stolen property.
Due to the quick work by both Cpl. Chevrier and Detective Beaulieu, almost all of the items reported stolen were recovered. Additionally, due to the number of clients Rivera-Darley was caring for, and the amount of jewelry that she has sold in the recent past, Detective Beaulieu will be working with the Division of Consumer Affairs, Division of Labor and previous employers to further investigate this incident in an attempt to identify additional potential victims. In furtherance of this, we are asking that if anyone has reason to believe that they have been a victim of a similar theft or has a family member who has been a victim of a similar theft, to please contact their local law enforcement agency as soon as possible, as it may help with the potential recovery of stolen property.