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Leslie Sappington, 30 of Advance, is charged with the Class C felony of stealing .
According to the incident report, on Jan. 31 Sgt. David Garner with the Advance Police Department received a call from the stoddard County Sheriff's Department regarding a crime committed in the city.
Garner and a deputy then went to visit with the 77-year-old victim and her great-nephew.
The victim then reportedly stated that she had taken $10,000 out of a lock box and placed it in an envelope and placed it in a drawer in her husband's bedroom.
She checked on it the morning of Jan. 26 before Sappington was coming to watch her husband while she went to the doctor in Cape Girardeau.
The victim said Sappington did something strange on the day in question.
"She wanted [victim] to leave the garage door up so that her grandfather could bring her cloth shopping bag and a hair cutting kit so she could cut [victim's husband's] hair," the report states. "When [victim] came back home, Leslie was sitting at the table working on a pile of papers. She also noticed that Leslie had not cut (husband's) hair. Leslie left shortly after (victim) arrived home."
Sappington was reportedly scheduled to return and sit with the husband the next day, but the next morning the victim received a call informing her that she was in the Cape Girardeau County Jail for questioning on another matter.
At this point, the victim went to move the money before the other woman came and found it was missing. She and her great-nephew searched the house and never located the money. They did, however, find the rubber band that had been around the money laying in the drawer.
The victim stated that Sappington knew she kept the money in that room because she would go in there to get money to pay her with and she paid her in cash.
On Feb. 1, Garner filed for a search warrant on Sappington's residence but before it was served she was interviewed at the Advance Police Department by Garner and Chief Bohnsack.
"During the interview, [Sappington] stated that she knew the money was in the dresser for approximately two weeks and kept an eye on it when other people were around to make sure that no one would get into the money," the report states. "She also admitted to us and on a signed statement, that she did take some money from the top dresser drawer in the husband's bedroom."
According to the report, Sappington stated that she took $2,400 out of the stack of money for legal fees and placed the rest back in the drawer. When asked where the money was located, she offered to take the officer to get it.
When they arrived at her home, Sappington grabbed a blue and black file bag and took out a stack of money and gave it to Garner. The stack contained $2,920.
"[Sappington] also took three-$100 bills out of her bill-fold and stated that it was not part of the money, but that she would give it to us to be put with the rest."
She stated that $5,400 of the money had been used to pay legal fees to three different attorneys.
As of presstime, Sappington had not yet been arrested.
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Oh, no! Leslie, tell me it isn't true!!
The amounts of money don't add up. Did she supposedly take the entire $10,000? Did the story mention if the entire $10,000 was gone? Why did they take the $10,000 out of the lock box in the first place? Had Leslie used the money to pay her own legal fees? There are lots of questions that aren't answered here.
On the other hand, I'm glad to see some stories in here that aren't in the regular paper!
This is a horrible situation. Perhaps good intentions of helping someone has become too large a temptation. Pray it isn't true.
I would say even if guilty, Leslie will tell you this isn't true GOAT.
Can't wait for CSI Advance to unveil the truth.
first off, i know her and her family. They are fairly wealty so for her to steal is highly unusual and there are alot of pieces missing from this story. One shes not a care taker, two THIS IS ADVANCE AND STODDARD COUNTY SO WHO KNOWS. First come along gets the blame. I hope everything works out for her. I know some people do things in desperation but i truly dont believe this is one of them. She is a lot of things but not a thief.