Lesa Lee
Real Name: Lesa Melanie Lee
Aliases: None Known
Wanted For: Theft, Embezzlement
Missing Since: December 22, 1990
Case[]
Details: Twenty-four-year-old Lesa Lee was born and raised in Jamaica. She was the mother of two children. In 1988, Lesa started working at Home Savings Bank near Pembroke, Florida near Miami. Within three years, she was promoted to head teller. By all accounts, she was a good employee that excelled at her job. She also did well in public speaking, volunteering for special bank training programs.
On December 20, 1990, a routine check of the tellers' vaults showed that Lesa's was missing more than $175,000. When questioned, Lesa claimed that she had taken it to give to a Jamaican man and woman who threatened over the phone to harm her children. She claimed that her father was a rich contractor in Jamaica and that he and her aunt could help her pay back the money. Her father and aunt confirmed that they could pay the money back by the following Monday. Her father pleaded that they not arrest Lesa.
Bank employees wanted to file a report with the police but not have Lesa arrested. However, the officers told them that they could not do that with such a serious charge. They decided not to file the report. They figured that Lesa was trustworthy and would bring back the money. However, when she was given twenty-four hours to replace the money, Lesa suddenly vanished. Bank employees called the FBI and agents went to her home. No trace of her or her children was found.
Agents staked out Miami International Airport throughout the weekend, expecting that she would depart from there and head to Jamaica. However, she never arrived. It was later discovered by bank auditors that Lesa had made off with additional cash, checks, and money orders from the bank, totaling nearly $500,000. Her co-workers felt betrayed and hurt that she would do something like this to them.
Bank employees were surprised when the FBI informed them that Lesa had a criminal record for marijuana trafficking. The bank's routine request for a background check had come up clean. They later realized that they had only done a State background check and not a Federal one. The marijuana trafficking conviction was only on the Federal level. They were even more surprised when they learned that her probation officer had come into the bank several times but had never talked to any of the employees about her.
The last reported sighting of Lesa occurred on the night of December 22, 1990, twelve hours before she was supposed to re-pay the bank. According to a neighbor, Lesa and an unidentified man were loading luggage into a late-model Nissan. She is wanted by the FBI for bank fraud and embezzlement.
Extra Notes:
- This case first aired on the September 4, 1991 episode.
- It was excluded from the FilmRise release of the Robert Stack episodes.
Results: Captured. On March 11, 1994, Jamaican police arrested Lesa Lee. As the FBI suspected, she had fled to Jamaica and was living there with her family. Based on a tip they received, they arrested her without incident. She waived extradition and was returned to Florida to stand trial on bank embezzlement charges. The sentence she received is not known. She was released from federal prison on December 18, 1996.
Links:
- Teller Embezzled $500,000 From Savings Bank, Fbi Says - January 8, 1991