Hoyt Lakes Woman Charged With Stealing $112,000 From HOA

Shannon Marie Alaspa, 50, the former treasurer of the Colby Ridge Homeowners Association in Hoyt Lakes, was charged in late March with four counts of felony theft after prosecutors alleged she wrote 76 checks totaling $112,024.69 to herself and her mother over two years, forging the signatures of fellow board members to do it.

The scheme began almost immediately after Alaspa took the treasurer position in September 2023. Court records filed in Sixth District Court show she first shifted HOA payments from electronic transfers to paper checks, a change that gave her direct control over disbursements. Colby Ridge required dual signatures on all checks, a standard financial safeguard. Prosecutors allege Alaspa forged those signatures on each of 76 separate transactions between Oct. 24, 2023, and Oct. 30, 2025.

The theft went undetected for two years until HOA president Jim Koepke reported to East Range Police on Oct. 31, 2025, that association accounts appeared to be roughly $20,000 short. The full scope of the loss, $112,024.69, emerged through an audit and subsequent police investigation. In a statement to investigators, Alaspa said she "used the money to gamble and support her lifestyle," according to the criminal complaint.

The Colby Ridge case illustrates how HOA financial controls can be compromised even when dual-signature requirements exist: a trusted insider circumvents them rather than bypasses them. For boards across St. Louis County, the lesson is procedural. A dual-signature rule only works if signatures are independently verified. Annual audits conducted by someone outside the board's day-to-day operations, monthly bank statement reviews at open meetings, and electronic payment records accessible to multiple officers would each create the kind of parallel paper trail that makes two years of forgery far harder to sustain.

Alaspa's case now moves into pretrial proceedings in St. Louis County court. Discovery, a potential omnibus hearing, and plea negotiations will shape whether the matter goes to trial. A conviction on all four felony counts would likely carry both prison time and a restitution order requiring Alaspa to repay the full $112,024.69 to Colby Ridge homeowners.