On June 2, 2026, Stacy L. Stafford — a 58-year-old Jefferson City, Missouri resident and the founder and chief executive of People Helping Paws Dog Rescue, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit she built from a local pet food pantry beginning in 2010 — was indicted by a Cole County grand jury on one count of Stealing of $750 or more, a Class D felony under Mo. Rev. Stat. § 570.030, after a Jefferson City Police Department investigation found that $3,932.72 in unauthorized charges had been transferred from the rescue organization's bank account into Stafford's personal account between June 8, 2023 and October 18, 2024. The investigation was triggered not by an internal audit or regulatory review but by a vendor's notice of an outstanding unpaid debt, which prompted the organization's remaining leadership — following Stafford's removal as CEO — to pull and review the charity's financial records. When investigators contacted Stafford by phone on February 19, 2026, she was unable to identify any other individual who had access to the organization's bank account. The case remains pre-trial, with arraignment scheduled for July 13 in Cole County Circuit Court; Stafford has not entered a plea and no conviction or sentence has been entered. People Helping Paws, which specializes in pulling pit bulls and bully breeds from kill shelters and taking in medically needy dogs, operates across Jefferson City, Columbia, and St. Louis — and every dollar prosecutors allege was diverted was a dollar that could have covered one more vet bill for a dog pulled off a euthanasia list. Disclaimer: This video is a dramatization based on real events. Some visual content was created with artificial intelligence assistance. Some details have been fictionalized and all names have been changed to protect the privacy of those involved.