The Travis County District Attorney's office is investigating a former executive director of Family Connections to determine if she was bilking the agency out of thousands of dollars.
"It's devastating to the agency. It's devastating to the children that we serve and the families that we serve," said Vielka Ridley, Chairperson of the Board of Directors for Family Connections.
For almost twenty years the agency was known as Austin Families but it merged with another non-profit in 2004 to become Family Connections. The agency provides a number of services for early childhood education and for parents. It helps an estimated 32,000 people annually.
Former Executive Director Louann Aponte worked for Austin Families for almost 20 years and had been at the helm of Family Connections since the group came on board six years ago.
"We were called in by one of the auditors that was doing a routine audit and said they came across some inconsistencies," said Ridley.
In mid-February a random audit raised a few red flags and questions about whether or not Aponte was stealing money out of the agency's 2.5 million dollar annual budget.
"It's hard for me to believe that the person was capable of this," said Melissa Fuentes, a librarian at Family Connection for 10 years.
Louann Aponte turned in her resignation on March 11th. However no one from Family Connections nor the Travis County D.A.'s office has been able to locate her.
A Family Connections employee told KVUE that she believes Aponte is in Venezuela because she has dual citizenship there and in the U.S.
A call to the Aponte family home was unreturned Monday evening.
Anyone with information on Aponte's whereabouts is asked to call the Travis County D.A.'s office at (512) 854-9400.
