News

Accused medical office embezzler dies at age 58

Kerry Spachman

By Bill Moss, Published: October 22, 2023

The office manager accused of embezzling at least $560,000 from a Hendersonville internal medicine practice has died, according to an obituary posted on line by Forest Lawn Funeral Home. Kerry Henderson Spachman, 58, died unexpectedly Wednesday at UNC Health Pardee Hospital "following a brief and sudden illness," the obituary said.

Spachman was charged in December 2022 with nine felonies that accused her of embezzling the money from the practice of Dr. James J. Caserio, a popular physician who has been practicing in Hendersonville for more than 45 years. Spachman worked in the office from 2008 until she was fired in September 2020 after the practice discovered how the money went missing.

Spachman most recently appeared in court on Aug. 18 and entered a plea of not guilty to the charges after a proposed plea agreement apparently fell apart. J. Kyle Smith, a special prosecutor assigned to the case, told the court that Spachman decided to reject an offer he had made a day earlier. The agreement would have allowed Spachman to plead guilty to a consolidation of all the charges against her into one felony in exchange for restitution and a lesser sentence, Smith told Superior Court Judge Peter Knight.
The charges against Spachman came after a two-year investigation by a Hendersonville police detective and an SBI agent. Search warrant applications filed by the investigators detailed the pattern Spachman is alleged to have used in the ongoing embezzlement scheme. From 2013 to 2019, she allegedly wrote 81 unauthorized checks payable to cash totaling $82,068 and used the physician’s signature stamp to sign them while during the same period drafting 485 checks for a total of $485,165, commingling “the fraudulent checks with legitimate office and payroll checks for Dr. Caserio to sign,” the court documents said. Investigators said they tracked 566 unauthorized checks that they alleged Spachman had deposited in her personal account at the State Employees Credit Union. In interviews with the Lightning, Dr. Caserio and other family members said they believed the total Spachman stole was likely much higher but because bank records go back for only six years investigators could not track the activity before 2013.

The daughter of the late Richard and Pat Henderson, Spachman was a native of Henderson County and a 1983 graduate of Hendersonville High School. She received an associate's degree in business from Blue Ridge Community College. She loved traveling, especially to the beach and was openly friendly to everyone she met, the family said in the obituary.

Surviving are her husband of 13 years, James “Jimmy” Spachman; daughter, Jordan Heath and husband Dylan; step-daughter, McKenna Sayles and husband Ethan; stepson, Jarrett Spachman; grandchildren Caleb, Greyson and Blakeleigh; step-grandson, Dawson; sister, Debra Henderson; brother, Ross Henderson and wife Kim; and numerous close friends and extended family. A private celebration of life is to be held at a later date. In lieu of flowers, the family asked that memorial donations be directed to Four Seasons Hospice, 571 South Allen Road, Flat Rock, NC 28731.