Although she's keeping a low profile this year, Natalie J. Szekers '97 is at the center of a storm of controversy.

And friends, former colleagues and the Middlesex District Attorney's Office have some questions they'd like her to answer.

Szekeres, a former treasurer of the Currier House Committee, is being charged with embezzling $7,550 from that organization. Police say there are no other explanations for how the money disappeared.

Most of the biology concentrator's friends won't comment on the investigation; but those who will talk say that they can't fathom why Szekeres would possibly steal money.

Szekeres herself doesn't appear to be responding to the charges. On leave from school in Landover, Md. this year, Szekeres did not return repeated phone calls to her residence. Police say she's even dodging criminal investigators, refusing to respond to letters and phone calls by the Harvard Police Department sent over the last three months.

And as the district attorney prepares to prosecute her, Szekeres' case has renewed debate about how much Harvard can trust its students to handle large quantities of money.

A Gloomy Chain of Events

Last semester, with Szekeres absent, Zachary T. Buchwald '96 filled in for her as the house committee's treasurer. It was then that he discovered discrepancies between what he remembered the committee's financial situation to be and what its records showed.

According to Harvard Police Detective Dennis M. Maloney, Buchwald reported the missing funds to John D. Stubbs '80, Currier's Allston Burr senior tutor. Stubbs notified Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68, who in turn informed the Harvard Police and the Middlesex County District Attorney.

Maloney's investigation revealed that the Currier House Committee was missing about $15,000.

Maloney says there are no other suspects besides Szekeres.

Szekeres is not being charged with stealing the full amount because the committee's records--often handwritten, photo copied or simply check-marked to signify that an amount had been paid--would not hold up as evidence in court.

But the paper trail police did manage to uncover points clearly to Szekeres, according to Maloney.

"We have evidence that shows that the checks actually went into her own personal accounts," he says.

On February 6, the police presented some of that evidence at a show cause hearing in Middlesex District Court.