David Monroe estate case gets a court-appointed referee after collectibles sold

The division of the estate belonging to David Monroe, a San Antonio inventor killed in an accident at Port San Antonio, has gotten more complicated. In the wake of his widow sending some collectibles to an auction house, the court has assigned a temporary administrator to the case. Monroe, founder and CEO of the San Antonio Museum of Science and Technology, died without a will in September when a jet engine he was moving fell on him at a loading dock at Boeing Center at Tech Port. The inventor of an early cellphone camera, Wi-Fi, night vision and other patented technologies, Monroe was 72. His estate is in probate court in Bexar County where Adam Monroe and Dawn Monroe Harriman, two of his adult children, recently got a temporary administrator put on the case. Such administrators are typically brought into probate cases where there are disputes or delays in the proceedings. RELATED: A prolific inventor was fatally crushed. His heirs are sorting out his estate in court. They requested an administrator in order to protect Monroe’s personal property, which “consisted of collectible phones and other technology and artwork valued in excess of $2 million,” according to the filing. Lorena Monroe, David’s widow, moved out of their home in the Dominion in early March and dropped off some of his property at the San Antonio Museum of Science and Technology without providing the siblings a chance to “view, secure or inventory” the property, the filing said. They “discovered that Lorena was not honest regarding the location of (Monroe’s) personal property,” it said. Last month, they “discovered that several pieces of artwork were sold at Vogt (auction house) for over $70,000 in March.” Vogt Auction Galleries of San Antonio has liquidated estates belonging to notable people such as actress Shelley Duvall and author Larry McMurtry. Adam Monroe and Harriman say about 70 items — antique furniture and Western art — have been sold or prepared for sale by Vogt, and that “Lorena never informed anyone of selling any personal property.” READ NEXT: OSHA fines tech museum over accident that killed San Antonio inventor Lorena Monroe’s attorney, Matthew Badders, disputes the allegations in his answer, saying the siblings got a chance to “view and inventory” the property in September and that the sold “artwork is (her) separate property by gift, or a non-marital asset.” The filing also includes a text exchange between Lorena and Adam Monroe about using Vogt as well as listings for the items that were auctioned off over the weekend. It said some of the items belonged solely to Lorena Monroe, others were community property and some were unknown and potentially David’s property. In September, Adam Monroe “removed at least $25,000.00 worth of property from the residence including … a grand piano which was (David) and Mrs. Monroe’s community property,” it said. Separately, Fox Convey, formerly known as Katherine Monroe and another of David’s children from a past marriage, has made a $128,629 claim against the estate. READ MORE: ‘Rushed’ job, ‘oversights’ led to fatal workplace accident at Port San Antonio, police say Now living in Portland, Ore., she says David Monroe agreed to pay the cost of graduate school for the three children as part of a divorce agreement between him and Karen Monroe in 1995. Convey earned a master’s degree in criminal psychology from Antioch University in Santa Barbara, Calif., in 2023. The court last week ordered San Antonio estate lawyer Conrad J. Netting V to be the temporary administrator for 180 days. Last month, federal safety regulators fined the San Antonio Museum of Science and Technology $4,965 for the “serious” violation of failing to train workers how to use the loading dock. The San Antonio Police Department cited a “rushed” job and “several apparent oversights” as factors in the accident.