San Diego prosecutors charged Cedric Von Ferdinand with murder in the death of Nadine Jett.

The murder count is what District Attorney Summer Stephan announced Wednesday, and no plea has been reported. KGTV quotes her on a six-foot hole, a bed sheet, and losses well over $500,000. The City News Service account says he solicited a 6-feet-by-6-feet hole and describes the money as hundreds of thousands, and CBS 8 says the sisters last saw Jett in December 2023 while Stephan says she was last seen alive at chemotherapy on Jan. 14, 2024.

KGTV, NBC 7 and Times of San Diego reported Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026, that San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan announced a murder charge against Cedric Von Ferdinand, 34, in the death of Nadine Jett, 65, a retired attorney. Times of San Diego calls the count first-degree murder. The City News Service text on KGTV and NBC 7 says a murder charge, with special-circumstance allegations of killing her for financial gain and of administering poison, and does not use the words first-degree. KGTV's own story quotes Stephan on a special circumstance of murder by poison and does not mention a financial-gain special circumstance. It says that if he is convicted he faces life in prison without parole, or the death penalty if prosecutors pursue it. It says he had already been held to answer on nearly three dozen felony counts, including forgery and identity theft, and had remained out of custody until he was arrested Tuesday in Los Angeles County. He is due to be arraigned on the new count Thursday. KGTV's own story puts that arraignment at the Vista Courthouse. CBS 8 spells him Cedric "Charles" von Ferdinand. On Tuesday night, before the announcement, CBS 8 reported he was not listed in San Diego County sheriff's custody records, that the district attorney's office said he was in custody, and that it was unclear how long he had been detained. Wednesday's wire account is the one that places the arrest in Los Angeles County on Tuesday. A murder charge is the accusation Stephan announced. No outlet reported a plea.

The accounts do not describe the burial the same way. The City News Service story says Stephan said Jett was last seen alive on Jan. 14, 2024, at a chemotherapy session, that the complaint alleges she was killed sometime between Jan. 14 and Jan. 17, and that investigators found Von Ferdinand solicited someone on Jan. 16 to dig a 6-feet-by-6-feet hole on the Valley Center property. It says her remains were found in a hole of comparable size about 30 yards from the home. KGTV quotes Stephan calling it a six-foot hole, about 30 yards from the residence, and saying the body had been wrapped in a bed sheet. KGTV also quotes her saying a patch a doctor gave Jett on Jan. 14, meant to be removed in 27 hours, was still on her. The wire story does not mention the sheet or the patch. KGTV says a toxicology report that came back in April ruled the death a homicide from acute fentanyl toxicity, and quotes Stephan saying the fentanyl contained acetyl fentanyl, which is commonly found in illicitly manufactured fentanyl. The wire story says Stephan described a massive amount of acetylfentanyl, which she said is found in illicit rather than pharmaceutical fentanyl, and that a medical examiner gave the cause as acute fentanyl toxicity and the manner as homicide. It does not date that report to April. CBS 8, published Tuesday evening, said Jett disappeared in December 2023 and was last seen by her foster daughters that month, shortly after a pancreatic-cancer diagnosis. The Wednesday accounts say she was battling pancreatic cancer and went missing from late 2023 into early 2024, and they quote Stephan on the Jan. 14 chemotherapy visit as the last time she was seen alive. CBS 8 calls the daughters four identical quadruplets. The wire story calls them four foster daughters.

The money is also told in two figures. KGTV quotes Stephan saying the financial counts already charged, including grand theft, identity theft, forgery and filing false documents, involve losses "well over $500,000." The City News Service story says he used her identity to siphon hundreds of thousands of dollars and does not quote that figure. It says that after January 2024 he was given power of attorney on documents bearing what appeared to be her signature and initials, that her ranch and two Los Angeles County properties were transferred to him, and that he bought another Los Angeles County residence with money wired from her account. It says defense attorneys argued at last year's preliminary hearing that she willingly transferred the money and the properties. That argument is what the wire story says the defense told the court in the fraud case. It is not a plea on the murder count. Both Wednesday accounts say a woman was charged with impersonating Jett on a marriage document. The wire story spells her Kimberley Pifer, says the license found in Von Ferdinand's home was signed and notarized on May 18, 2024, says she at one time lived at the Valley Center property, and says she faces forgery and identity theft, is out of custody, and is set for arraignment next week. KGTV spells her Kimberly Pifer, says she is not charged with murder, and says the district attorney's office described a fake marriage certificate after Jett's death. The wire story also charges Escondido notary Raymond Joseph Alto, 46, with notarizing documents prosecutors say bore Jett's forged signature. It says a thumbprint next to that signature in his journal, claimed to be hers, was later determined to be Von Ferdinand's. KGTV's own story does not mention Alto.

The sisters the outlets quote are not the same person. The wire story quotes Bianca Lucci, one of the four, saying Jett took them in after they had been in and out of 10 foster homes, that "She was the mom we needed," and that "I'm glad justice will finally be served. I do believe that this was all out of greed and money and it's just sad." KGTV quotes Tiffany Lucci: "How dare you do what you did to Nadine knowing that she gave you a chance, you know, she took you in as her own as well." CBS 8 quotes Paris Lucci, from an earlier interview, saying she asked him for a death certificate and he said no, and that a real estate agent told her he asked a buyer to plant roses in a specific spot, the same area someone else told her he had been digging from midnight to about 3 a.m. That is what Paris told the station. It is not the Jan. 16 solicitation Stephan described Wednesday. Stephan told KGTV, "This is a case of deadly greed." The wire story quotes her saying, "His deadly greed led to this horrific homicide. He preyed on her in her time of need when she was suffering from cancer. It is quite despicable." Those are the district attorney's words at the announcement. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.