Sarah Smalls passed required screening before a brief care referral, but police allege her later relationship with Robert Rowland became financially exploitative.
CONWAY, S.C. — Before Sarah Smalls became the defendant in a South Carolina exploitation case, she had passed the background screening required for a caregiver referral to 75-year-old Robert Rowland, according to the company that connected them. Police now allege the relationship later expanded into control over Rowland’s finances and home.
The distinction between the original caregiving arrangement and what allegedly happened afterward is one of the central issues surrounding Smalls’ arrest. Griswold Care Pairing for Myrtle Beach has said Smalls was an independent caregiver on its registry and was referred to Rowland for only a brief period in 2024. The company said Rowland was no longer receiving its services when the power of attorney and deed transactions at the heart of the case took place. Conway police nevertheless allege that Smalls used the relationship to exploit a vulnerable adult.
Smalls, 58, was arrested Sept. 28 on charges of exploitation of a vulnerable adult, breach of trust with fraudulent intent and perjury. Warrants accuse her of obtaining power of attorney over Rowland, taking control of his finances, withdrawing more than $17,000 and transferring money to herself. Police also say she obtained the deed to his Conway home in April 2024 for a stated consideration of $5. Smalls posted bond the following day. She has not been convicted, and the accusations remain allegations.
The case shows how a legitimate care connection and a later private relationship can become legally distinct. A referral company can screen a worker before placing that person with a client, but that screening does not establish what may occur after the referral ends or whether later financial arrangements are proper. Griswold said Smalls had passed its required background process and that the South Carolina Nurse Aide Registry listed her without substantiated findings of abuse, neglect or misappropriation of property at the time the company reviewed the case.
Griswold has stressed that it does not condone abuse, exploitation or improper financial relationships involving caregivers. It said it learned of the allegations later, conducted an internal review, made reports to appropriate state organizations and has been cooperating with authorities. Privacy rules limited what the company said it could disclose about Rowland’s care. Its statements do not decide whether Smalls committed a crime, but they draw a boundary between the services arranged through the company and later actions police say occurred outside that period.
Nora Rowland, Robert Rowland’s daughter, tells a different part of the story: how she watched contact with her father diminish. She lived in Maryland and said the two had communicated regularly before Smalls began caring for him in March 2024. Rowland said her father had Parkinson’s disease and a brain injury. As the weeks passed, she said she heard from him less frequently, eventually prompting her and her partner to travel to Conway around Father’s Day to find out what had happened.
She said the answer came before she entered the house. According to Rowland, Smalls communicated with her through the home’s Ring doorbell and disclosed that Robert Rowland had died three days earlier. The daughter said she had not previously known of his death. What she learned next shifted the episode from a family tragedy to a dispute over control of his property: Smalls had a deed listing the Conway residence in her name.
The deed had been recorded on April 17, 2024, according to records and arrest-warrant allegations reported by WMBF. Police say Smalls had known Rowland only about a month before obtaining the document. They allege a member of her family notarized it; Nora Rowland’s probate complaint identifies the notary as Smalls’ sister. Authorities also say Smalls was turned away by one law office before securing the deed through another. The property transfer is being challenged separately in civil court.
By the time Nora Rowland arrived, she said the house no longer looked as it once had. She described seeing changes to the rooms and photographs of people she did not recognize. Smalls accused her and her partner of trespassing, according to Rowland’s account, and police detained them. Conway police ultimately charged Rowland with second-degree burglary. Prosecutors later dismissed that case, leaving the daughter to continue pursuing the deed dispute and pressing authorities to examine her father’s financial affairs.
The money trail eventually became a major part of the criminal allegations against Smalls. Warrants say she obtained Rowland’s power of attorney and used her access to withdraw more than $17,000 in cash while also sending funds to her own Cash App. WMBF reported that it independently reviewed bank records showing transfers involving Rowland and Smalls. Power of attorney can give another person substantial authority to act on someone’s behalf, but that authority carries legal duties and does not itself permit exploitation or self-dealing.
Police have not limited the investigation to Rowland’s accounts. The perjury case concerns information Smalls allegedly submitted to the Housing Authority of Conway in May 2024. Investigators say she falsely represented her financial circumstances, including whether she possessed assets, real estate or cash and whether she expected to work during the coming year. That paperwork was created around the same period in which the deed and financial transactions were taking place, according to the warrants.
The timing matters because prosecutors allege an ongoing course of conduct from March through July 2024 rather than a single disputed signature. To prove the charges, however, the state will need to establish far more than an unusual sequence of events. Prosecutors must show that Smalls’ conduct met the statutory requirements for exploitation, breach of trust and perjury. The defense can contest the interpretation of the documents, the circumstances under which Rowland authorized transactions and the conclusions investigators drew from the financial records.
Nora Rowland has also raised concerns about her father’s physical condition near the end of his life. She has said records described him as severely underweight and has publicly expressed hope that authorities will consider additional charges related to his care. No such additional criminal charges were identified in the public records reviewed for this report. There has been no public finding establishing that Smalls caused his death or committed criminal abuse or neglect, so those concerns remain separate from the charges currently pending.
The route to Smalls’ arrest was also complicated. WMBF reported that the matter was first taken to Horry County police but was later determined to fall within Conway’s jurisdiction. It was referred to Conway police on July 24, 2026, and a detective’s report was entered in August. The police department has said its investigation was not opened because of news reporting. Nora Rowland, however, has said she had sought an investigation for an extended period and believed public scrutiny helped bring attention to the case.
Smalls’ case therefore sits at the intersection of several systems that operate under different standards: private home-care referrals, state caregiver records, financial powers of attorney, county property recording, law-enforcement investigations and civil probate litigation. A clean background screening did not guarantee that later allegations would never arise. A recorded deed did not prevent the transfer from being challenged. And the filing of criminal charges does not establish guilt. Each institution answers a different question, and none substitutes for a court’s final determination.
After her arrest, Smalls was granted bonds of $20,000 each on the exploitation and breach-of-trust charges and $5,000 on the perjury count. She posted bond and was released from jail Sept. 29. She did not answer questions from WMBF as she left custody, the station reported. The exploitation and breach-of-trust cases are expected to proceed to Horry County General Sessions Court, and her first appearance was scheduled for Dec. 11. Nora Rowland’s civil challenge to the property transfer also remains pending, leaving both the criminal accusations and ownership dispute unresolved.
Author note: Last updated Nov. 10, 2026.