Missing woman now suspected of embezzlement

CRYSTAL SPRINGS — Linda Gale Reed, a Copiah County woman last seen on April 29, is now wanted for embezzlement.

Sheriff Harold Jones says an audit and investigation have revealed money missing from the petty cash fund at Moore Fabrications and Machine, where the 65-year-old Reed was bookkeeper.

Jones says Reed had check-writing authority at her employer. She had worked for the company since 1999.

On April 30, Reed’s gray Chevy Equinox was found on an overgrown logging road off I-55, south of Crystal Springs. Inside the vehicle investigators found her purse, money, glasses and cellphone.

She lived in Carrollton but during the week worked and stayed in a mobile home on her employer’s property.

The night she disappeared, co-workers said Reed went to Walmart and was never seen again.