South Carolina church treasurer accused of stealing over $400,000

Police charged a 54-year-old woman with stealing over $400,000 from a Methodist church in central South Carolina on Monday.

Latrise Latrell Seward served as treasurer for the Mechanicsville United Methodist Church in Sumter and allegedly embezzled nearly half a million dollars from the church coffers across nearly eight years. Seward pulled just over $402,000 from the church’s bank account for personal purchases from January 2018 until August 2025, according to her arrest warrant.

How has Seward responded to the accusations? She allegedly confessed to making the charges, although it remains unclear if all of the money was spent and what it was used for. She was booked into the Sumter-Lee Regional Detention Center, according to a Monday release from the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division. Seward faces up to 10 years in prison and is scheduled to appear in court.

A 2017 survey conducted by Lifeway Research found that nearly 1 in 10 Protestant churches experienced embezzlement by administrators.