GUILTY MS - Linda Reed for embezzlement, Copiah County, 2012

[neesaki]

Me too

At first I thought she didn't. Then I thought she did. Then I thought she didn't.
Now all I can say is hwow:. Hey, can we go :back: and start the thread over? :groucho:

 

[neesaki]

Gave her the benefit of the doubt like many others,what mugs we were

I know how you feel, Saracen. I am just blown away. Just :nevermind: most of my previous posts.

 

[neesaki]

OH MY GOODNESS!! After all this time, I almost missed this case update because I was so intently following the Jessica Ridgeway suspect's arrest.

I cannot believe Linda has been located. I owe LE a big apology. I thought they were dragging their feet....but obviously they knew alot more than I did!

I feel terrible for her family. I'm sure they feel betrayed....because, believe it or not, I feel a little bit that way too. I'm anxious to hear more about Linda's case as time goes by. So happy she has been located....I know the people who love her most are filled with relief and also pain.

Ditto.

 

[neesaki]

I find it especially hard to believe she thought she could get away with this while using her real name and SS# here in the states.

I also wonder if the story of her being seen in Mexico was true. Then she returned to the states later. Maybe the FBI / LE knew where she was all along and were just trying to dot all the t's and cross all the i's on the money that was allegedly missing.

I also am thinking I need to re-evaluate how I approach the sleuthing of some of these cases. Maybe I've been too willing to always see someone as a victim. I mean, in most of these cases they are, but then there will be cases like this that come along and remind us that there are some people who will take advantage of the 'victim' role in order to avoid consequences of their criminal acts.

Such a shame as for me, I will have to guard against becoming more and more jaded. :tsktsk:

 

[mahoolin]

Sheriff, son agree missing woman still alive

"I just think she's alive," he said. "In our investigation, things are just not adding up for us the way that this has all played out, but I can't get into why I think that because that might impede our investigation into her disappearance."

"We're going to enlist some more outside agencies to help us do some more forensic investigations of book work and stuff like that," he said.
Jones said Reed was indicted in 1974 for forging checks. According to Hinds County Circuit Court records, a 1974 uttering forgery indictment against Reed was dismissed by the judge. She was then had the last name of McDaniel from one of her previous marriages.

http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20120517/NEWS/205170349/Sheriff-son-agree-missing-woman-still-alive-search-continues-


Complex picture of Reed emerges

Article focusing on comments from the family. She has been married multiple times. Twice to the same man.

http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20120517/NEWS/205170350

Been looking for this post. Seems the leopard didn't change her spots. Go ahead and crucify me for being unfeeling, but I think no way this woman has mental issues. I think she's just plain selfish. Who else could put their family through this? Sure, people becomed overwhelmed with responsibilities, but they don't usually disappear themselves. I'm curious to learn the final count of missing money.

I don't think she has mental issues because she not only successfully disappeared herself, but was able to carry on normal living. Two jobs and keeping them; going to church, and as one article mentioned she was a contract worker for one that outed her. Takes a bit of hoop jumping paper work and rule following to get those contract jobs, if it's what I'm thinking of.

We just assumed she was like the norm, but she didn't follow any patterns of her demographics. Some of us flirted at the edges when things didn't add up, but fell back to the profile of a soon to be retired female, mother, daughter and what they would be like. I'm guilty, my personal experience told me no way could she do that. Next time I'll listen to my intuition.

And she had the b*#¥ to use real ss#. Wow, is all I'm going to say. Her son thought she was alive, link is dead so I don't know his comments, but maybe he knew about car #2. Most likely he KNEW his mother and her personality. Wonder if she'd disappeared herself before? Sorry, but I only have sympathy for those who loved and were searching for her.

Glad for their sake she's been found ok. Maybe I'm unforgiving but I'd have a hard time forgiving this. Then again, I haven't had a lifetime of her behavior maybe preparing/training me for just this selfish act.

Go ahead :couch:

All the ramblings above MHOO :moo:

 

[Simp]

Mahoolin, come on out from behind that couch!!! LOL I don't think anybody's gonna get ya!! I was fooled by Linda!! Fool me once..................................

 

[mahoolin]

Mahoolin, come on out from behind that couch!!! LOL I don't think anybody's gonna get ya!! I was fooled by Linda!! Fool me once..................................

Yes, fooled me too. Probably too sharp- tongued today though, fuss with best friend. Grrrr. :blushing:

 

[NancyDrew2]

When this originally happened, I believed LGR had been kidnapped and probably murdered I never believed that the Moore's had anything to do with it, I honestly thought it was either someone she encountered at WalMart or it was someone robbing the shop. As the case evolved and more details came out, I switched sides and believed she had embezzled a large amount of money over the course of her employment and she had faked her kidnapping in order to evade being caught/prosecuted. I also believe she had help escaping-maybe not embezzling, but I think she had a friend who helped her fake her kidnapping and disappear. I have heard a lot regarding the money that was taken and regarding video that a neighboring business had. I still believe those 2 things based on the sources. I told y'all in the beginning that rumors ran rampant and I could fill pages with the stuff I had heard. One of those, that I discounted, was that she had one of the units at the storage place on the other side of the interstate. That when it was opened by LE, it was empty and she kept a car in there. I believed that was far reaching-if that was true, why wasn't her family saying anything about the car being gone? My first assumption, had I believed she was taken was that the kidnapper had stolen her other car. LE never said anything regarding people needing to be on the lookout for X car/license plate:X. I truly believed that was a crazy rumor. When WLBT broke the story about an empty storage unit, I had a hmmmmm.......type moment. When it was confirmed that she was in TX driving a car that she had owned in MS, I had a lightbulb moment that the "rumor" I heard was probably closer to fact than fiction.

It makes me wonder what else I heard and chose not to believe due to the outlandishness of the claim, could actually be true. I still stand firm in my belief regarding a large sum of money being taken (LE is already starting to allude to that) and I continue to believe in the surveillance tape. I am interested to see what other information comes out.

Do I believe she has a mental issue? Probably-just because I, as a mother, cannot imagine putting my kids through this. HOWEVER, I do not believe this mental issue prevented her from knowing right from wrong. She knew exactly what she did taking the money. She planned her escape very well. She was running to evade punishment

 

[mahoolin]

I agree NancyDrew, but why wait until 2012 to run? To me me, its ballsy to sit there for two yrs, unless a WHOLE lot more money had been siphoned off recently....

Hmmm, I also wonder if she didnT go ahead a set up her new life before she left MS? Hope we learn more....

 

[hollyblue]

When this originally happened, I believed LGR had been kidnapped and probably murdered I never believed that the Moore's had anything to do with it, I honestly thought it was either someone she encountered at WalMart or it was someone robbing the shop. As the case evolved and more details came out, I switched sides and believed she had embezzled a large amount of money over the course of her employment and she had faked her kidnapping in order to evade being caught/prosecuted. I also believe she had help escaping-maybe not embezzling, but I think she had a friend who helped her fake her kidnapping and disappear. I have heard a lot regarding the money that was taken and regarding video that a neighboring business had. I still believe those 2 things based on the sources. I told y'all in the beginning that rumors ran rampant and I could fill pages with the stuff I had heard. One of those, that I discounted, was that she had one of the units at the storage place on the other side of the interstate. That when it was opened by LE, it was empty and she kept a car in there. I believed that was far reaching-if that was true, why wasn't her family saying anything about the car being gone? My first assumption, had I believed she was taken was that the kidnapper had stolen her other car. LE never said anything regarding people needing to be on the lookout for X car/license plate:X. I truly believed that was a crazy rumor. When WLBT broke the story about an empty storage unit, I had a hmmmmm.......type moment. When it was confirmed that she was in TX driving a car that she had owned in MS, I had a lightbulb moment that the "rumor" I heard was probably closer to fact than fiction.

It makes me wonder what else I heard and chose not to believe due to the outlandishness of the claim, could actually be true. I still stand firm in my belief regarding a large sum of money being taken (LE is already starting to allude to that) and I continue to believe in the surveillance tape. I am interested to see what other information comes out.

Do I believe she has a mental issue? Probably-just because I, as a mother, cannot imagine putting my kids through this. HOWEVER, I do not believe this mental issue prevented her from knowing right from wrong. She knew exactly what she did taking the money. She planned her escape very well. She was running to evade punishment

It is very interesting regarding LE not telling the media about the missing car or giving a description and the license plate number. That is a hmmmmmm moment.

 

[deca]

I find it especially hard to believe she thought she could get away with this while using her real name and SS# here in the states.



I also am thinking I need to re-evaluate how I approach the sleuthing of some of these cases. Maybe I've been too willing to always see someone as a victim. I mean, in most of these cases they are, but then there will be cases like this that come along and remind us that there are some people who will take advantage of the 'victim' role in order to avoid consequences of their criminal acts.

Such a shame as for me, I will have to guard against becoming more and more jaded. :tsktsk:

Respectfully snipped by me.

On another case I was working on, I was surprised about the limitations involved in looking up SSN usage. I am not sure if she used it at her new job or not- but if she did I am not sure if the authorities can look it up due to privacy issues.

You are right, in most of the cases someone like this is a victim and I think we probably all reacted in the right way. I mean, how many times has someone faked their own death/abduction? I can think of maybe 2 or 3 that I have come across on WS and 1000s of cases that are real.

So no one should be beating themselves up here IMO :slap: It is okay to admit most of us were wrong. I sure as heck was---but with all the info and stats it wasn't a dumb mistake or anything.

 

[NancyDrew2]

The only charge they brought forward is 2010 petty cash, yet they are now alluding to a much higher amount. She would have had access to accounts, not just the petty cash, and she worked there for years. She kept other businesses books as well as did taxes. I sincerely doubt $20K is all she took.

You can speculate that they just used that instance to file charges. LE has been so tight lipped in the media, from the get go, that I would not put it past them to keep everything quiet until they are ready to file charges. That one instance was enough to charge her with the highest felony class. Is it possible they were not disclosing more? I think it is highly probable. I know the amounts I have heard, since a couple of weeks into it and I am more apt to believe that. Remember that she wasn't under suspicion until she left. THAT is when everything was uncovered.

 

[Simp]

I agree! I too was wrong. I don't feel bad that we defended a lady that we thought had been hurt or killed. However, I would feel terrible if I had talked "smack" about her and she was hurt or killed. KWIM

 

[hollyblue]

I agree! I too was wrong. I don't feel bad that we defended a lady that we thought had been hurt or killed. However, I would feel terrible if I had talked "smack" about her and she was hurt or killed. KWIM

I don't think we should feel bad at all. The sheriff was saying a week into it he thought foul play was involved and she had been abducted. I'm going back and reviewing from the beginning, but many of the early articles are now deleted. Learning now...it's so important to copy and paste from them. :banghead: There has to be more to this, as I can't see any company having a $20K balance of any kind in a petty cash fund.

 

[neesaki]

I don't think we should feel bad at all. The sheriff was saying a week into it he thought foul play was involved and she had been abducted. I'm going back and reviewing from the beginning, but many of the early articles are now deleted. Learning now...it's so important to copy and paste from them. :banghead: There has to be more to this, as I can't see any company having a $20K balance of any kind in a petty cash fund.

You make a good point. And that early information is about all we had to go on. After that, LE became completely mute regarding later developments or updates in the case. IIRC, they even later reportedly told Linda's family that there was no money missing. :waitasec: So either LE is now contradicting themselves or we got bad information. If the former, can we conclude that outright deception by LE to anyone outside the investigation, including the family, is considered acceptable? If so, is this standard protocol? I honestly don't know, but something about this whole thing really bothers me.

 

[NancyDrew2]

Correct me if I am wrong, but the only time I ever heard that there was no money missing was what I read here from someone who said they were a family member, as well as her husband stated in interviews that one of the Moore's told him that nothing was missing. I have never read or heard that LE stated that.

The first day that she was missing, LE did say that she had disappeared and they hoped it was a case of dementia. Very early into it, LE basically quit searching as if she was a missing person, TX equusearch came in and community volunteers searched, but LE was not searching as if she was a victim of foul play. The few times they spoke out, they said they did not believe she was a victim of foul play and that they thought she was still close by. The family believed she was abducted. The family was pressing for them to continue searching. Does LE have to tell her family and friends that they believe she had embezzled and faked her kidnapping? How do they know someone in her family isn't helping her?

I do understand why her family was upset more wasn't being done to find her, they believed she was a victim. I also see why LE was quiet.

 

[Coldpizza]

The owner of Walton Automotive says Linda was referred to him by a friend...I wonder who that was?

I would like the answer to that too.

 

[HeinekenMan]

Without knowing that the financial audit had uncovered the theft by Linda Reed, there was no way for any of us to determine whether LE was botching the investigation or if they were just keeping hushed. A family member came on here and insisted that LE had messed up a lot of stuff. It seems like that person also said there was no money missing. Since there were no charges, it was easy to assume that there was no money missing. But audits take time. You have to call banks and businesses and track lots of money. And it appears some of that money was from a few years ago. That would make the investigation tough. Our Little League president was charged with grand theft for stealing from the league. They started their investigation in April, and he was just arrested a few weeks ago.

I haven't read the follow-up stories. But I'm curious about a few things. What happened to the stolen money? If Linda didn't have it and didn't spend it on lavish things, she must have given to someone. And that someone may be charged here, too. Perhaps she lent it to someone to cover an overdue mortgage and save a home from being taken by the bank. Perhaps she used it to pay someone's gambling debts. Or maybe she just used it to help pay for her mother's care. Who knows. But living in an apartment in Texas and working as a bookkeeper and driving the same old car doesn't sound like someone who was living it up.

 

[marycarney]

Without knowing that the financial audit had uncovered the theft by Linda Reed, there was no way for any of us to determine whether LE was botching the investigation or if they were just keeping hushed. A family member came on here and insisted that LE had messed up a lot of stuff. It seems like that person also said there was no money missing. Since there were no charges, it was easy to assume that there was no money missing. But audits take time. You have to call banks and businesses and track lots of money. And it appears some of that money was from a few years ago. That would make the investigation tough. Our Little League president was charged with grand theft for stealing from the league. They started their investigation in April, and he was just arrested a few weeks ago.

I haven't read the follow-up stories. But I'm curious about a few things. What happened to the stolen money? If Linda didn't have it and didn't spend it on lavish things, she must have given to someone. And that someone may be charged here, too. Perhaps she lent it to someone to cover an overdue mortgage and save a home from being taken by the bank. Perhaps she used it to pay someone's gambling debts. Or maybe she just used it to help pay for her mother's care. Who knows. But living in an apartment in Texas and working as a bookkeeper and driving the same old car doesn't sound like someone who was living it up.

BBM: 'Living it up' is a relative term. My own late mother did the 'disappearing act' when I was 13 - leaving five children (ages 5 months to 13 years) behind. She went to another state, where her sister lived. and worked as she always had - as a legal secretary, living in a modest apartment, driving the same old car. Apparently being free from her five children was 'living it up' to her.

 

[HeinekenMan]

BBM: 'Living it up' is a relative term. My own late mother did the 'disappearing act' when I was 13 - leaving five children (ages 5 months to 13 years) behind. She went to another state, where her sister lived. and worked as she always had - as a legal secretary, living in a modest apartment, driving the same old car. Apparently being free from her five children was 'living it up' to her.

She might have been escaping something. But I get the feeling that she feared being caught. Remember, she was about to retire and turn the books over to someone else.