Merrimack Valley

Investigators: Why it was fraud


Published: June 22, 2008

Two conflicting documents — one of them with a forged signature of Viviana Resto — are the basis of the auto insurance fraud task force's case against funeral director Manolito "Manny" Diaz of Diaz-Healy Funeral Home.

After her son, 11-year-old Dario Rodriguez, died after he was hit by a car in Lawrence, the boy's mother received a billing statement for $1,500 — $1,100 which was to be paid from state welfare funds. She was supposed to pay the remaining $400, but believed it would be taken care of by donations.

Dario was buried in a pauper's grave at Bellevue Cemetery, in a section where no headstones are allowed. But three days after Dario's burial, Diaz presented her with updated statement of funeral goods and services totaling $11,751 — which included $3,980 for a headstone.

The document bore Resto's signature, which investigators said Diaz admitted to signing.

"The $3,980 was a figure that I pulled out of thin air, saying to myself, what am I thinking a nice monument would cost?," Diaz told task force investigators.

After admitting to signing Resto's name, he was asked why he did it.

"Because that's what — that's what I — well, that's because it's what I did. That's the only answer to that ...," he responded.