Cold Waters (Locust Point Mystery Book 12) by Libby Howard

Author:Libby Howard [Howard, Libby]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-09-28T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

Violet waved at me from behind the counter at the tax assessment office in the courthouse.

“I pulled all the tax data on Suzette’s property, as well as the old Miller property. I didn’t see anything indicating a change in boundary lines.” She handed me a folder full of copies. “But we don’t record the deed and survey data in our records. I can see the change in assessment when the land sales occurred during the development but nothing outside of that. So I went down to the land records division and pulled the old plats. There is definitely a discrepancy between the last survey done on the Hostenfelder property over a hundred years ago and the one done on the Miller property in 1960.”

“Do you think there might have been a mistake in the 1960 survey?” I asked, flipping through the papers. “Or maybe there was some land sold to the Millers in the last hundred years that never got recorded?”

“It’s a possibility. The houses that were built there were never part of Suzette’s family’s farm. They were on land that was part of the Miller farm. Suzette’s land took a dog-leg around that section, then continue back a ways, so there’s a chance the Hostenfelders might have sold that strip to the Millers at some point.”

I frowned, not really understanding either the copies in the folder or the significance of what Violet was telling me.

“That’s where the discrepancy occurred,” she explained, seeing my confusion. “Currently the Miller plat and the Hostenfelder plat overlap. There was an error, but I can’t tell which property deed the error occurred on.”

“Is there any other place a survey might have been recorded?” I asked. “A hundred years is a long time. Maybe the agreement and the documents got lost somewhere, and that land really did transfer to the Millers.”

Violet nodded. “It absolutely could have happened. I can order the archival documents from the state. Or we can ask the Locust Point Historical Society. They like to keep copies of all the original deeds and documents going back over three hundred years. But I warn you, there still might be discrepancies. It’s ten feet, Kay. The Miller and the Hostenfelder families might have argued over that ten feet, but whatever agreement they came to probably was done on a handshake and never recorded. I’m finding out that was common back then.”

I sighed, thinking this was a whole lot of work for ten feet. Suzette might just want to sign that strip of land away, but I wanted to do a little bit more research before I threw in the towel here.

With my bag full of the copies Violet had made for me, I headed to the Locust Point Historical Society next. I’d never been inside although I’d driven past the little building down on Main Street many times. Locust Point was a tiny town compared to neighboring Milford, but we did have a thriving downtown with a handful of antique shops, a deli, a pub, a bakery, and a salon in addition to the Historical Society office.

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