By David Hedges Publisher
www.thetimesrecord.net
Skeletal remains found last week in South Carolina were those of a former Spencer woman missing for the past four months.
Andrea Vaughn Stone, 36, was last seen near her home in Summerville, S.C., around noon on May 10, according to the Dorchester County Sheriff's Dept.
The remains found in nearby Colleton County turned out to be those of Stone. Authorities said the body, discovered near a hunting club, had been there for several months.
Police believe she took thousands of dollars from her employer before she disappeared.
The former Andrea Bowers, who graduated form Spencer High School in 1992, had recently remarried. She had two children and two stepchildren.
Colleton County Coroner Rich Harvey said Friday that dental records were used to make the identification.
Harvey declined to give a cause of death, but said it is being investigated as a homicide because of indications of trauma.
A warrant for Stone's arrest was issued June 23, charging her with two counts each of breach of trust and forgery in connection with $134,000 missing from her former employer, Money Title Loans of Summerville.
Police said they found 63 incidents of forgery while Stone worked as office manager at the title loan business. Police said she set up fake accounts to steal funds from her employer.
According to a report in The Post and Courier of Charleston, S.C., police said they were contacted May 4 by a corporate manager at the title business who said she had been alerted Stone was creating phony accounts. The manager said she had researched several titles but was told by the South Carolina DMV that the titles did not exist. When she did an inventory of the titles, she found about 50 missing.
Charges against Stone were filed the following month, when the investigation was complete.
The same day she was last seen, Stone's vehicle, a 2004 Mercury Mountaineer, was found in the parking lot of a Dollar General store in Cottageville, S.C.
When police said Stone was a fugitive from justice, family and friends held a different view, saying it was unlike her to not stay in contact with her children.
Friends said Stone had returned to Spencer last year for the funeral of her grandmother, Audra "Jerry" Stotts, 78, who died in November.
Private funeral arrangements are being handled by a funeral home in Summerville.
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