North Carolina Agent Charged with Murder Pleads Guilty to Embezzlement

Former North Carolina insurance agent Michael A. Howell has pleaded guilty to 25 counts of embezzlement and is expected to plead guilty to the murder of the state examiner who audited his agency about one year ago.

Howell, 41, has been charged with murder in the death of Sallie Rohrbach, a Department of Insurance agency examiner. He is currently being held at the Mecklenburg County Jail.

The embezzlement guilty plea came after nine months of investigation into his Dilworth Insurance Agency in Charlotte, according to North Carolina Insurance Commissioenr Wayne Goodwin.

Each embezzlement count represents a premium payment that Howell pocketed instead of forwarding to GMAC Insurance and Discovery Insurance companies. Between March 2004 and May 2008, Howell embezzled more than $150,000 in documented and undocumented premiums, according to officials.

Goodwin said that hundreds of the Dilworth Insurance Agency’s customers were affected by Howell’s actions, but that GMAC Insurance and Discovery Insurance companies “made good on every policy, so no customers lost money or insurance coverage in the end.”

Howell is reported to have agreed to plead guilty to killing examiner Rohrbach. Her body was found in South Carolina in a rural area within days of her beginning her audit of the agency.