CASS COUNTY, Mo. — An Ohio woman is facing charges in Cass County after allegedly posing as a bail bonds courier and stealing $25,000 from a Missouri resident in a “grandparent scam.”
According to court records, Leslie Sellards visited a rural home in Garden City on April 16, 2024. The victim had been contacted by a man identifying himself as an attorney named “Mark Albers,” who falsely claimed the victim’s grandson had been arrested in Omaha, Nebraska.
The caller instructed the victim to withdraw $25,000 as bond money. The cash was placed in a box and handed to Sellards when she arrived in a silver Kia Soul, posing as a courier from a bail bonds company.
After the exchange, the victim contacted her grandson and learned he had never been arrested.
Investigators later connected the case to a similar incident in Liberty, Missouri, where surveillance footage appeared to show a woman matching Sellards’ description collecting cash.
A witness positively identified Sellards in a photo lineup as the person who took the $25,000 in Garden City. Authorities also confirmed the bail bonds company named in the scam had no involvement in the transaction.
Charges were filed in Cass County, but attempts to locate Sellards at her last known address in Ohio were unsuccessful, as she no longer resides there.
