New Mexico's highest-ranking state senator has confirmed that money is missing from her Senate and campaign accounts and says personal items have also been taken from her home.
The Las Cruces Sun-News reports that 83-year-old Sen. Mary Kay Papen, a Las Cruces Democrat, says she discovered missing money in early September during a separate investigation involving the fraudulent use of her son-in-law's credit card.
Papen says she's working with a certified personal accountant and an attorney to figure out how much money was stolen from the two accounts.
She didn't provide an absolute figure but says "a lot of money" is missing.
Papen serves as the president pro tem of the Senate.
State officials and local authorities would neither confirm nor deny the investigation.
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