LENA LUNSFORD PLEADS GUILTY Mother Of Missing Girl Pleads Guilty To Welfare Fraud
Reported by: Leslie Rubin
Web Producer: Leslie Rubin
Also Contributing: AP
Reported: Jan. 10, 2012 2:19 PM EST
Eyewitness News Photo
Elkins
, West Virginia
A woman whose 3-year-old daughter has been missing for more than three months has pleaded guilty to a federal charge of welfare fraud.
Lena Lunsford, 29, appeared before federal Magistrate John Kaull in Elkins on Tuesday.
She pleaded guilty to selling $114 worth of credit on her food stamp card for $50 cash.
Lunsford will be sentenced at a later date. She could get as much as five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Lunsford's 3-year-old daughter Aliayah vanished from the family's Lewis County home on Sept 24. Investigators are treating her disappearance as a crime but have made no arrests and named no suspects.
Weeks after her daughter's disappearance, Lunsford was indicted. She was accused of selling her benefits five times in two months.
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Leslie Rubin
