KENNEWICK, Wash. – A former manager of Tri-City Medical CU who vanished in 1983 after allegedly embezzling $106,000 was brought back from her Arizona home this week and charged in the 26-year-old cold case.
The 70-year-old woman, identified as Barbara Kurz, was arrested Feb. 17, after Kennewick detectives tracked her to Mesa, Ariz.
Under Washington state law, the statute of limitations for first-degree theft is three years, but the time doesn't count if the suspect is not living in Washington.
At a bail hearing Monday Kurz told the judge that she couldn't afford to hire an attorney. She said she had a mortgage she paid on the double-wide mobile home she lived in, and was working as a caregiver before her arrest.
Kurz is accused of taking $106,000 from the Tri-City Medical CU and possibly $4,000 from GESA FCU. She had been a supervisor at GESA's Kennewick office and used the space to also do paperwork for her own business, Medical CU.
Kurz was a 44-year-old wife and mother of four when she went on the lam, and police initially thought she may have been a victim of foul play or suicide, or gone missing due to a loss of memory. She left her husband and kids behind. She claimed to have been abducted in her call to her husband. Relatives reportedly never heard from her again.
