This image from an Arlington police search warrant shows the house at 7411 Lake Whitney Drive in Arlington, owned by Regla Becquer. Becquer, who has been charged with abandoning and endangering a disabled woman in her care, is under investigation after alleged abuse at her unlicensed group homes.
Arlington Police Department
The former owner of several unlicensed North Texas boarding homes pleaded guilty Monday to financially abusing and fatally neglecting elderly and disabled people in her care, according to court filings.
Regla Suyu “Su” Becquer will spend 30 years in prison as part of a plea agreement, according to the filings.
Arlington police arrested Becquer in 2024 after receiving multiple reports concerning activity connected to the boarding homes she owned and operated, the Star-Telegram previously reported.
Police who went to the homes routinely found vehicles belonging to people who died while receiving, or after receiving, Becquer’s care, according to a warrant written at the time. Family members also reported that their loved one’s debit cards or EBT cards were used fraudulently while they were in Becquer’s homes.
On one occasion in November 2023, a neighbor called police to one of the homes on Arlington’s Woodbrook Street after noticing a man had fallen in the backyard and seemed unable to get up. When police arrived at the home, they found two other patients inside.
The caller told responding officers that the home had belonged to a woman who had been put in Becquer’s care, according to the police report. After the woman died, the home became Becquer’s property. Probate court documents obtained by Star-Telegram media partner WFAA-TV show that the woman left Becquer the house in a one-sentence, handwritten will dated 19 days prior to her death.
A woman living in one of the homes told police she’d made cuts on her wrist in an attempt to be taken to the hospital and get away from the house, detectives wrote. That woman’s report led to Becquer’s arrest.
At least 13 people died while at or after leaving the homes operated by Becquer, according to warrants obtained by the Star-Telegram. Becquer pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide in connection to the death of a 60-year-old man who police say she gave numerous unprescribed pills.
Since Becquer’s arrest, two new state laws have gone into effect: one made it a criminal offense to operate an unlicensed assisted living facility and the other imposed the first state rules on senior placement agents, according to WFAA. Prior to the laws, placement agents were not subject to state oversight and were not required to disclose complaints or to refer clients to licensed facilities.