Son says con man bilked his mother of savings

Gary Post-Tribune

Tony Ello's life reads like a detective novel since he met a man named Robert Stormer a little more than a year ago.

It's a story about Ello, a regular guy who owns a bowling alley, meeting up with a shady character dating his mother. He and his wife spend a year tracking down the tall tales of Robert Stormer, who's salvaged boats, chased storms, served as a Navy officer and owns never-seen vehicles and aircraft.

But Ello's story is real. The name -- Robert Stormer -- is not. He's Joseph Cafasso, who now sits in the Porter County Jail, as Ello from Chesterton recounts his tale of how he and his wife detected a fraud.

They hope their story cautions others down the road from getting ensnared by Cafasso, a man who exudes immense confidence and intelligence.

Thank you, Tony. That is what this blog is all about...to caution people down the road that this could very well happen to someone they love.

First meeting

Cafasso stopped by Ello's bowling alley with Ello's mother, whom he was dating after meeting through an online dating site.

He introduced himself as "Robert Stormer," the same name Andrea Ello, Tony's mother, knew him as.

And he was a storm chaser.

"I thought 'bullsh--'," Tony said. "Stormer? Being a storm chaser? He talks a good game."

He certainly does! He has scammed so many people it's ridiculous! The tragedy is how long this has been going on and it's a shame that Kathryn Cramer hasn't come clean as to the depth and breadth of her relationship with him.

Then, he shared other details. He told Ello he was a retired lieutenant commander in the Navy's "Salvage Department" and is consulted regularly as an expert in salvaging nuclear weapons in oceans.

All within that first meeting, "Stormer" mentioned he and his family of lawyers and engineers runs a company. He claimed he had signatory rights of up to $300,000.

And on the spot, he expressed his interest to partner up with the bowling business.

Well of course, he smelled a chance to make off with some cash.

Tony, 43, brushed it off and told him he'd look into it. His reservations grew when he couldn't find any information about "Stormer" on the Internet.

"I'm a nobody and my name shows up on the Internet," he said. "I couldn't verify anything he said."

After a few months, he stopped giving "Stormer" the benefit of the doubt.

He and Evelyn, his wife, took a time-consuming interest in pursuing "Stormer's" identity.

Until earlier this year, the couple tried to nudge Andrea away from the man, but to no avail.

Andrea declined to be interviewed for this story.

That is where a lot of women left in his path of destruction wind up; embarrassed and broken-hearted; not willing to file charges, even.

Strange stories

Tony and Evelyn picked up on some odd patterns that included "Stormer" often talking on the phone in the spur of the moment -- even though no one heard the phone ring.

It didn't ring, and he didn't dial!

He would also make grandiose plans, including private helicopter rides to Chicago to see a musical theater performance or a trip to Rhode Island to visit his hospitalized nephew.

How dramatic - I have tickets to go see "Wicked"...and then when the helicopter shows up, he said "we can use the tickets later".  Anyone who's been to the theatre knows it doesn't quite work that way.

And every time, those plans never panned out. An emergency came up and he had to stay put to consult clients over the phone, Cafasso would explain to the family.

When Cafasso claimed that his nephew in Rhode Island was in a coma, Evelyn, a Porter hospital nurse, checked every hospital in the state. Nothing turned up.

"If you've been around a habitual liar, you can spot traits," said Evelyn, 40.

Cafasso lived in Andrea's house in Tefft and essentially lived off her savings. Her home served as a "glorified homeless shelter," Evelyn said.

Unfortunately it was a widow's life's savings that went down the tubes; and not the funds from a Christian ministry or the government. Cafasso doesn't care about anyone but himself - but even then you have to wonder just what exactly he thinks he's accomplishing with all of this; because the pattern repeats itself; time and again!

Big discovery

Within a couple of months Ello and his wife began a series of attempts to uncover "Stormer."

With help from friends, Evelyn concocted a secret identity on a dating site to try to trap Cafasso. She printed out the e-mail correspondence, which included him offering his phone number. They showed the e-mails to Andrea.

But in the end, Evelyn's plan fizzled, only leaving Andrea angry at her.

Now that is odd; you'd think his pursuits of other women would cause Andrea to confront him.

Then in August, the couple began to unravel the web of "Stormer's" calculated lies.

Tony had been typing "Robert Stormer" in a Google search nearly every other day.

On that August day, his search brought out a comment from a blog that exposed Stormer as Joseph Cafasso, "the infamous con artist," it read.

From then on, the Ellos had no trouble searching Cafasso's background.

They stumbled across an April 2002 New York Times profile on him that exposed him as a fraud as well as an extensive Wikipedia page about him.

Despite the overwhelming case against him, Andrea couldn't let go of Cafasso.

"I don't know what goes on in the mind of a lonely widow," Tony said. "She was hanging on to tiny, itty, bitty possible truths instead of the big picture."

It's sad and little consolation to realize that Andrea is not alone in how she's responded to this.; there have been many others before her.

The jig is up

Last October, an officer from the state Department of Natural Resources pulled Cafasso over at Indiana Dunes State Park for speeding and driving with a suspended license.

Authorities discovered that "Robert Stormer" was an alias and also charged him with lying to an officer.

They finally arrested Cafasso last month after he failed to show up at court on those charges.

While in jail, his personal laptop was with Andrea. When Tony found out, he and his mother turned it over to the Chesterton police and it's now held as evidence.

Since Cafasso came into their lives, Tony and Evelyn's relationship with Andrea had deteriorated.

Sometime in early January, Andrea began to distance herself from him, Tony said. She is facing possible bankruptcy because of unpaid bills. She had trusted Cafasso's claim that he had a hefty paycheck on the way for them.

But now the family is back on speaking terms.

"I hope she's learned her lesson," Tony said. "But she's an adult and she'll make up her own mind."