Missing millionaire Guma Aguiar's mother and wife are waging a vicious legal battle over control of his $100 million fortune through a barrage of rapid-fire lawsuits filled with direct attacks on each other.
It has been one week since Aguiar was last seen and his mother Ellen Aguiar and wife Jamie Aguiar have already made three legal filings in a tug of war over who will be put in control of his estate.
In a new court document, Jamie Aguiar accuses her mother-in-law of being "incapable of looking out for the interest of anyone but herself," saying the mother "consistently drove a wedge between the family."
Guma Aguiar, 35, vanished last Wednesday when his 31-foot fishing boat washed up on a Fort Lauderdale beach with the engine running and lights on, but with no sign of its Brazilian-born owner.
A lawyer for Aguiar's mother suggested that the millionaire was in a despondent mood when he got onto his boat last week.
"An hour before he got on his boat, the wife told Guma she wanted a divorce," attorney Richard Baron told ABCNews.com. "I'm of the belief that that's what pushed him over the deep end. He loved his wife. He did not want a divorce."
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Watch Video Documents filed last week by his mother to secure control of her son's assets suggest that the Aguiar may be alive and in a "delusional state or be suffering from psychosis."
On Monday, Jamie Aguiar filed a counter-petition against her mother-in-law so that she could be appointed conservator, or temporary guardian, of her husband's assets.
"Rather than rally around her family in this most difficult of times, Ellen Aguiar instead focused on being first to the courthouse, petitioning this Court to serve in a position she is ill-suited to hold as she is incapable of looking out for the interest of anyone but herself," Jamie Aguiar said in her filing, obtained by ABCNews.com.
Jamie Aguiar called her mother-in-law an "impediment" to the investigation into Guma Aguiar's disappearance and accused her of persuading police investigators to give her "critical pieces of evidence," including Guma Aguiar's cell phone and wallet, which were found on his boat.
"These items were subsequently returned by Ellen Aguiar's attorney, but not before she made a few phone calls and possibly deleted critical voice and/or text messages," Jamie Aguiar said in the filing.
"She's a liar," Baron told ABCNews.com today, referring to Aguiar's wife.
"[Ellen Aguiar] never asked for the phone. She never asked for the wallet. That's complete and utter fantasy. It's creative writing," Baron said. "It's a third-rate novel."
Baron said that Aguiar's mother was at a vigil at the site where the boat had washed up when police said to her, 'I guess these belong to you" and handed her the cell phone and wallet. Ellen Aguiar wanted to know who her son had called before his disappearance but could not check because the phone was locked with a password she did not know.
Ellen Aguiar gave the objects to her attorney who returned them to authorities, Baron said.
"While Jamie Aguiar has been home grieving and trying to add to the search efforts being conducted privately and in conjunction with the authorities, Ellen has been attempting to take control [of] the Jamie and Guma's assets without even providing Jamie with notice."
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