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Scamming woman gets 5-year term

Considering her past, the man she met online and moved in with feels lucky to be alive.

By CHRIS TISCH
Published March 15, 2005

LARGO - Alex Strategos feels lucky to be alive, especially after a brush with Melissa Ann Friedrich, whom some call a "black widow."

Friedrich, 69, was sentenced to five years in prison Monday after she pleaded guilty to multiple charges of grand theft and forgery.

Friedrich stole nearly $20,000 from Strategos after she met him online, then moved in with him in November.

At the time, Strategos, 73, didn't know Friedrich was a widow of two husbands, one of whom she was convicted of killing in 1992.

Just hours after Friedrich moved from Canada and into Strategos' Pinellas Park home, he began feeling dizzy. He was hospitalized a half-dozen times. His bank accounts began to shrink.

His son thought something was fishy. He called police.

Friedrich was arrested in January. Though hospital tests showed traces of a tranquilizer in Strategos' blood, police cannot prove Friedrich drugged him.

"I wanted more, but that's enough as long as she's off the street," Strategos said after the sentencing.

Earlier this month, Friedrich tried to work out a deal to serve just under three years in prison, the minimum punishment.

But prosecutors said they wanted a 10-year sentence and Judge Doug Baird said he didn't think the minimum was appropriate.

Friedrich's public defender and prosecutors had more talks and settled on a five-year prison term, said Assistant State Attorney Evan Brodsky. Strategos signed off on the deal.

Friedrich also is wanted in Canada on charges of defrauding the government of $20,000. She faces deportation to Canada upon release from a Florida prison.

Friedrich's criminal history goes back 35 years and includes 30 prior convictions for fraud. She has used at least 13 aliases.

Her most serious conviction came in 1992 after she ran over her 44-year-old husband on a road in Canada. She told police he raped her and she accidentally ran over him trying to escape.

She was sentenced to six years in prison, but she got out early on good behavior.

She next met Robert Edmund Friedrich, 83, from Bradenton in 2000, his family said. They were engaged within three days.

His family noticed his health deteriorated and he often slurred his words and fell down. Meanwhile, his new wife drained more than $400,000 from his savings, his family said.

He died in 2002. Because of his poor health, a doctor signed the death certificate and Manatee County deputies did only a routine investigation. No autopsy was performed, and Friedrich had the body cremated.

Mr. Friedrich's family thinks she drugged and killed him. Their concerns have prompted Manatee detectives to open an investigation, though prosecution is unlikely because of the absence of a body.

Strategos said Mr. Friedrich's son came to visit him recently. He went through some of Melissa Friedrich's things and papers relating to his father.

Police have found Friedrich was talking with more than a dozen other men online at the time of her arrest. She kept a diary of the lies she told them, police said.

Strategos, who is in a wheelchair and has diabetes, wonders what would have happened if his son hadn't gotten suspicious. "I probably wouldn't be here today," he said.

He said he's through with meeting people online.

[Last modified March 15, 2005, 01:06:08]