A few years ago, Marie-Thérèse Ross-Mahé reconnected with a man named Bill Ross, whom she had met when she was a young secretary and he was stationed in France for the U.S. military. Both widowed and in their 80s, the two fell in love, and last year she moved more than 4,000 miles to Anniston, Ala., to marry him.
But the continent-spanning love story soured in January after Mr. Ross died, setting off an ugly inheritance battle between his two sons and Ms. Ross-Mahé, 85. This month, immigration agents arrested her in her nightgown at her late husband’s home — and a county probate judge overseeing his estate said that one of his sons was responsible for the arrest.
Ms. Ross-Mahé is now in a detention center hundreds of miles away in Louisiana, her own three children back in France unable to reach her and fearing for her health.
The Calhoun County probate judge, Shirley A. Millwood, a Republican elected in 2024, in a Friday ruling urged the federal government to investigate, “especially in light of the ongoing national events surrounding the distrust of federal law enforcement officers and the many investigations ongoing of corruption within our government.”
In her ruling, she appointed an independent administrator for Mr. Ross’s estate and temporarily ordered his sons to give up their keys to their father’s home. The ruling has not been previously reported.
Judge Millwood wrote in her ruling that she believed that Mr. Ross’s younger son, Tony Ross, who she said was a retired Alabama state trooper now working at a federal courthouse in Anniston, had used his position as a government employee to have Ms. Ross-Mahé arrested.
The son testified in probate court that he had not asked co-workers to have Ms. Ross-Mahé arrested. But, Judge Millwood wrote, law enforcement officers told Tony Ross a day before Ms. Ross-Mahé’s arrest that she would be detained, and he also received a text confirming the arrest less than an hour after it happened. Two hours after her arrest, the judge wrote, Mr. Ross’s other son, Gary, went to their father’s house and changed the locks.
Judge Millwood directed that copies of her ruling be sent to the presiding federal judge in Anniston, as well as to the top U.S. marshal for the region, possibly in an effort to prompt an investigation into the sons’ behavior.
Mr. Ross’s sons, who are in their 50s, did not respond to requests for comment, and neither did their lawyer in the inheritance case.
Ms. Mahé-Ross said in a court filing before her arrest that she had been trying to gain American citizenship. The Homeland Security Department said in an unsigned statement only that Ms. Mahé had overstayed a 90-day visa by roughly four months and was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
One of Ms. Ross-Mahé’s sons said his mother first became acquainted with Mr. Ross in the late 1950s while working at a military base in western France. Mr. Ross later married one of her friends, returning to the United States with her and beginning a life in Alabama.
Ms. Ross-Mahé married, too, and had three children, but many decades later, after both of their spouses died, the long-lost friends struck up a long-distance romance. She visited Alabama, and he visited the Nantes area where she lived, meeting her family. The children found it slightly awkward that their mother had fallen in love again so quickly, but they were glad that she was finding a second youth, said her son, who asked not to be identified out of fear of affecting his mother’s case.
And so Ms. Ross-Mahé gave up her life in western France — and her pension — to live in Anniston, a city of about 21,000 people not far from the Talladega racecar track. The couple married civilly in April 2025 and had a religious ceremony that summer, which her children watched online from France.
The house Mr. Ross had owned for nearly 50 decades became home base, with its backyard pool, brick exterior and manicured lawn. The pair explored parks, drove to Florida and had plans to visit Louisiana, too, Ms. Mahé-Ross’s son said. But on Jan. 24, Mr. Ross died unexpectedly of natural causes at 85.
The dispute over his possessions — the one-story home worth about $173,000, as well as two cars and a bank account holding about $1,500 — began shortly after.
In Alabama, probate judges oversee many administrative matters, including wills, and Judge Millwood is handling the inheritance dispute because Mr. Ross did not leave one.
Under Alabama’s inheritance laws for people who die without a will, Ms. Ross-Mahé would be entitled to half of Mr. Ross’s estate, and his children would split the other half.
But Tony Ross testified that Ms. Ross-Mahé had said, while she was married to his father, that if he died, she did not want anything of his but would need to be able to fly back to France. After his death, the sons sent Ms. Mahé an offer of $10,000 if she waived her right to any inheritance.
Ms. Ross-Mahé and the judge described more aggressive approaches.
The day after Mr. Ross died, his sons came to the house and each drove off with one of his vehicles, a truck and a 2018 Mercedes-Benz, according to Judge Millwood.
Mr. Ross’s sons denied removing other pieces of property and countered that Ms. Mahé had “removed, concealed or disposed” of certain assets herself. They also said she had told them she did not want certain things in the house — guns and Mr. Ross’s dog — but had later claimed that the sons had taken them unfairly.
Ms. Ross-Mahé said in a court filing last month that the older of Mr. Ross’s sons, Gary Ross, had rerouted all mail sent to his father’s home, which caused her to miss an appointment with immigration officials. Because of her citizenship status, Ms. Ross-Mahé said, she was not on her husband’s checking account and did not have access to money to pay for food, clothing or utilities. Her son said the internet, utilities and cable had been turned off at the home.
On March 30, Judge Millwood issued an order temporarily prohibiting all of Mr. Ross’s family members from selling or giving away any of his assets.
Two days later, on April 1, ICE agents came to the home on quiet Gann Drive and arrested Ms. Ross-Mahé, dressed only in her nightgown, robe and underwear, according to a neighbor’s account filed in court.
Her son said he had been unable to contact his mother since her arrest, because the detention center where she is held does not accept international phone calls. Instead, she has been communicating through her neighbors in Anniston, who have rallied around her cause. The French consulate has also been working to free her.
According to Ms. Ross-Mahé’s son, she has told her neighbors that other people being held at the detention center have been taking care of her, offering her covers at night and calling her “Unsinkable Molly” after Margaret Brown, a survivor of the Titanic.
Bryant K. Oden contributed reporting from Anniston, Ala. Georgia Gee and Kirsten Noyes contributed research.
Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs reports for The Times on national stories across the United States with a focus on criminal justice.
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