The mayor of a Brazilian town has disappeared after being accused of embezzling money from schools and often running the town hall from her WhatsApp account, authorities said.
Lidiane Leite has been on the run for 11 days, with no clues to her whereabouts, a spokeswoman for the Federal Police from the northern state of Maranhao told CNN on Monday.
Leite, 25, was the mayor of the town of Bom Jardim, which is about 170 miles (275 kilometers) southwest of Sao Luis, the capital of the tropical Maranhao state, which borders the Atlantic Ocean.
She is being investigated by authorities, accused of siphoning off funds earmarked for school lunches and refurbishments. She has been indicted.
Leite enraged local residents by posting pictures of herself at nightclubs and parties in Sao Luis and is said to have sent messages to her Cabinet via WhatsApp.
“She was out of town for days at a time every week,” said the Federal Police spokeswoman, who is not allowed to give out her name.
Many residents in Leite’s town of 39,000 have taken to the streets to demand an end to corruption.
In total, Federal Police believe that more than $1 million was siphoned off in a corruption scheme also involving other members of the local government.
According to Brazilian media, Leite’s husband ran for mayor in Bom Jardim — a small town in one of Brazil’s most impoverished states — back in 2012, only to be barred from participating in elections because of corruption allegations. Leite stepped in to replace him as a candidate.
