Shelton Mayor talks about missing money

SHELTON, Conn. (WTNH) -- Hundreds of thousands of dollars paid to the town of Shelton by its taxpayers is nowhere to be found.

It started with an audit at the end of Shelton's fiscal year: June 30th.

However, there was a problem.

"The auditor shot up to my office one day and said, 'listen, I have a very important issue that I need to discuss with you.' He started showing me the information, asked me what I thought of it, said we need to go a little bit further, and we saw a pattern develop," said Mayor Mark Lauretti.

A pattern of money gone, with the trail leading to an individual in the finance department. News 8 has learned Finance Director Louis Marusic is on administrative leave and Assistant Finance Director Sharon Scanlon has resigned.

"We're talking about $200,000," asked News 8 Jamie Muro.

"We're talking about a significant amount of money," said Mayor Lauretti.

"200,000, more than 200,000," asked Muro

"More than 200,000," the Mayor replied.

So the Finance Director in Shelton is on leave. The assistant Finance Director, she resigned. And the investigation isn't over. It's now in the hands of State Police. And the Mayor tells News 8 that $200,000 number could keep going up.

"There's a huge breach of the public trust that's at stake here," Mayor Lauretti said.

News 8 wanted to get the position from those at the center of this. Although there were cars parked in the driveway and lights on at both Sharon Scanlon's house and Louis Marusic, no one came to the door.

"When you work with people day in and day out for 15-16, 20-year period as I have, you develop a level of confidence and trust in them, you don't anticipate things like this," the Mayor said.

The Mayor promises taxpayers will be made whole.

"It's very disappointing actually," Mayor Lauretti said. "In a perfect world, we don't have to worry about these things, but we'll never be in that situation."