MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A woman tasked with managing her elderly cousin’s finances was accused of stealing thousands of dollars and gambling a lot of it away.

Delois Slater, 57, was charged with theft and willful neglect/exploitation.

Tipton County Chancery court appointed Slater as the conservator of Elloise Vaughn’s estate in 2011.

Vaughn was 88-years-old at the time.

An arrest report said Slater moved Vaughn to her home in Shelby County and began to deplete her accounts.

The report said Slater admitted to losing a great deal of money gambling in West Memphis and Tunica.

It also said she wrote checks to pay for new tires, phone bills and medical bills.

In all, Slater was accused of spending more than $224,000 of Vaughn’s money.

Vaughn died in November 2013, but the report alleged Slater continued to spend it.

“I’m going to pass out,” said Slater’s Northaven neighbor Denise Ross.

She has known Slater for decades, as they have both lived on the same street for some time.

She said Slater had a caretaker help Vaughn, and Slater was always very pleasant.

“You never know anybody,” Ross said, after hearing the news.

“I interviewed her [Slater] a number of times. I interviewed Ms. Vaughn a number of times. I remember the case very well, and she seemed more than appropriate at the time,” said Kasey Culbreath, the attorney appointed to investigate the conservatorship in 2011.

Culbreath said the court asked her to investigate Slater again after allegations arose.

Culbreath told WREG the women were cousins.

Slater paid her $25,000 bond.

She was scheduled to be in court May 20.