Mid-Mo embezzler charged

A Mid-Missouri woman is indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly stealing money from a Moberly funeral home.

The indictment claims 40-year-old Beverly Smith of Higbee took 176-thousand dollars while working as the office manager at Million-Taylor Funeral Home. Prosecutors say Smith and the
funeral home’s owner had access to a special escrow account when she started her job in 2001. When the owner died in 2006, Smith allegedly hid the account’s existence from other
employees.

It was Smith’s job to collect funeral expenses from family members or insurance policies, and she occasionally told an outside accountant that she couldn’t collect all the money owed to
the business. That’s how she allegedly covered up deposits to the hidden account.