VERO BEACH, Fla. — A former administrator at a South Florida parish is accused of using nearly $550,000 in donations for personal reasons as part of a $1.5 million embezzlement scheme with the church’s late pastor, authorities said.
Deborah Lynn True, 69, whose address was listed as Frederick, Colorado, in an online arrest affidavit, was arrested Monday in Vero Beach, Florida, and charged with one count of organized fraud over $50,000, according to Indian River County Sheriff’s Office booking records.
True was a former parish administrator at Holy Cross Catholic Church in Vero Beach, Treasure Coast Newspapers reported. After an investigation that began in December 2021, authorities said that True used the money to pay off her personal lines of credit, according to the newspaper.
According to investigators, True and the church’s former past, Richard Murphy, opened a bank account in the name of “Holy Cross Catholic Church” in 2012, WPTV reported. Authorities said the account was hidden by the Catholic Diocese of Palm Beach, according to the television station.
True retired from the parish in July 2020 and Murphy remained the church’s pastor until his death at the age of 80 in March 2020, Treasure Coast Newspapers reported. True was Murphy’s caretaker while he was in hospice, according to WPEC-TV
Police on Sept. 2 spoke with True via telephone and she told investigators she transferred to the church in 1997 with Murphy, according to the newspaper. Both had worked at a Catholic church in nearby Stuart from the mid-1980s until 1997.
According to police, bank records show that nearly $1.5 million of parishioners’ donations were fraudulently deposited into the account set up by True and Murphy since 2015, WPTV reported.
In addition to paying off lines of credit, investigators said True withdrew $147,000 from the account and deposited it into her personal checking account, according to WPEC.
Authorities said Murphy also appeared to benefit from the money, but because of his death, a criminal investigation was not conducted to determine an exact amount, Treasure Coast Newspapers reported.
“You’re talking about a five-year period time. Where people have given their hard-earned money every week, for five years from 2015 to 2020 to the tune of about $1.5 million,” Vero Beach police Chief David Currey told the television station. “It’s certainly disappointing that this has taken place. I used the word ‘trust’ because the trust was there. Hopefully, it still is, but it’s very hard to trust when something like this happens.”
True was released after posting $25,000 bail, online records show. No attorneys have been listed for her in Indian River County records, according to Treasure Coast Newspapers.