The saga continues for Helen Golay and Olga Rutterschmidt as the pair has now been formally charged with murder for financial gain of two homeless men.

According to a recent LA Times article, federal charges on the two women will likely be dropped to pursue the murder charges, for which they may face the death penalty.

As you may recall, the two women were first arrested on suspicions of mail and life insurance fraud, after two transient men were found dead—with dozens of life insurance policies taken out in their names. Golay and Rutterschmidt allegedly claimed they were relatives of the men in order to collect policy procedes. That's the short version.

The defendants have both pled not guilty and Golay's attorney, Roger Jon Diamond, (okay, I just wanted to say his name) said that his client is innocent and that he's certain they're going to win the trial.

I don't have quite the confidence of Mr. Diamond, not after reading the most recent LA Times article. At first blush, it seems the women were really working the system to get away with such debauchery. Needless to say, I'll post updates here as I catch them.

[Related]:
Previous Agent Blog posts on Golay and Rutterschmidt; here, here and here.
MSNBC's update
KTLA News update [video]