CHICORA — A woman working as a caretaker in Parker Township is accused of stealing more than $60,000 from an elderly client.

Diane K. Walker’s alleged crime stunned the victim’s family, who found it senseless for many reasons.

“Margaret was a kind, kind lady,” said Shawn Pistorius of his mother-in-law, Margaret Walker. “If Diane needed the money, Margaret would have loaned it to her.”

Instead, state police said, Walker wrote numerous checks on the 89-year-old victim’s account from November 2012 to January of this year.

The two Walkers are not related.

Pistorius discovered the theft just before his mother-in-law died in February. State police on June 13 arrested Walker, 52, of Fairview Township on five felony charges.

The defendant on Tuesday appeared for her preliminary hearing at District Judge Lewis Stoughton’s office in Chicora, but waived it.

“The waiver was part of an agreement that she would be placed in the (accelerated rehabilitative disposition) program,” Al Lindsay, Walker’s attorney, said Wednesday.

Through the ARD program, Walker could end up with probation, community service, fines and court costs. If she stays out of any more trouble, she will eventually be able to expunge the case from her criminal records.

Specific terms of the ARD await further review by the Butler County District Attorney’s Office, followed by court approval.

The defendant at Tuesday’s proceedings also met a key condition of her ARD acceptance — restitution. She wrote a check to the district court for $62,455, the amount that police said she stole from Margaret Walker.

The money will be turned over to the victim’s family, upon ARD approval by a county judge.

“We’re hoping we get that,” Pistorius of Parker Township said of the restitution that hangs in the balance.

However, what the family won’t get back is the jewelry that Walker also allegedly stole from the victim. The items’ sentimental value far exceeds the monetary worth, Pistorius said.

The family hired the defendant in 2010 to take care of Margaret Walker on a part-time basis. The duties included taking Margaret to the doctor and dentist and paying her bills.

Margaret, a widow for 25 years, died Feb. 15. She once worked as the office manager for the former Ultra-Penn Refinery in Bruin, and she assisted with her father’s appliance store in Parker

She and her husband had a daughter, DeAnn, Shawn Pistorius’ wife.

Pistorius told police that after taking over bill-paying duties for his mother-in-law earlier this year, he turned up the theft while going over her bank statements.

He was immediately suspicious of the defendant, and shared those suspicions with police,

Troopers later interviewed Walker, who eventually admitted wrongdoing, according to court documents

She thought she stole $7,000 to $8,000 in allegedly forged checks, but police told her the theft was $60,455.

“She admitted that she used the money to pay off her credit cards,” a police affidavit said.

Walker also confessed to taking two rings and two or three necklaces that belonged to her client, police said. She allegedly sold those jewelry pieces, valued at $2,000.

“It was a shock to all of us,” Pistorius said. “The shock has worn off a little but not the feeling of betrayal. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to forgive her.”

Police charged Walker with theft by unlawful taking, theft by deception, receiving stolen property and two counts of forgery, all felonies, and tampering with records or identification, a misdemeanor.

She remains free on $30,000 unsecured bail.

“She’s extremely remorseful,” Lindsay said of his client.