Warrant issued for suspect in senior exploitation case

A 64-year-old Carson City man has had a warrant issued for his arrest for allegedly stealing $30,000 in jewelry, $5,000 in cash and a revolver from a 74-year-old Carson City woman.Ronnal Chancellor, 64, faces a charge of exploitation of an older person over $5,000, according to the arrest warrant. The charge carries a potential penalty of up to 20 years in prison and a fine of $25,000. In an interview Wednesday, Mary Burgoon said she and Chancellor were going to Hawaii to get married, the engagement rings already bought and placed into her safe.They had been dating for the past seven months, she said.Burgoon said on Oct. 31, Chancellor suggested Burgoon spend the night in Sparks. Burgoon said the following morning Chancellor suggested she stay another day there while he went to a morning manager’s meeting at Carson Nugget, where he was employed as the operations manager.At 10:40 a.m., on Nov. 1, Burgoon said she called Chancellor, the last time she would talk to him.When Chancellor failed to show up that evening and didn’t answer his cellphone, Burgoon called the Nugget, and later local hospitals and law enforcement, she said.On the morning of Nov. 2, Burgoon arrived at her home and checked her safe. It had been cleaned out, she said. All of her jewelry was gone, along with $5,000 in cash and a revolver with a box of ammunition. Chancellor’s personal possessions were also missing, along with his truck.“I’m surprised he didn’t take the silverware,” Burgoon said. “I didn’t cry. I screamed. I yelled.”The two had plans to go to Hawaii on Nov. 13, and to marry on Nov. 18.“The money, the jewelry, is just stuff,” she said. The real pain comes from the loss. Burgoon lost her husband of 31 years a little over a year ago. “It’s like another death in the family,” she said.She said she will get through with “strong faith and a sense of humor. I’m not going to dwell on it. I’m going to put it in the hands of the lord.”Burgoon is an “excellent example of a long-term Carson City resident,” Sheriff Ken Furlong said.The staff of the Nugget is “devastated,” he said, and it is unknown at this time if it suffered any losses. Chancellor is suspected to be in Northern California.Anyone with information on his whereabouts is encouraged to call the sheriff’s office at 775-283-7851.“(District Attorney) Neil (Rombardo) and I both say elder abuse needs to become a place of focus,” Furlong said.