Stoddard Co. employee guilty of embezzlement

BLOOMFIELD, Mo. -- A former employee of the Stoddard County collector's office was placed on probation Wednesday and ordered to repay nearly $49,000 to the county after she pleaded guilty to stealing by embezzling money belonging to the county's taxpayers. After reviewing a presentence investigation completed by probation and parole officers, Circuit Judge Stephen Sharp suspended the imposition of Natalie Metcalf's sentence and placed the 35-year-old Bloomfield woman on five years' supervised probation, according to Stoddard County Circuit Clerk Sherry Disney.