Employee accused of stealing morphine from Fort Mill animal hospital

A Rock Hill woman was arrested Monday, accused of stealing morphine from the Fort Mill animal clinic where she was employed, according to the York County Sheriff’s Office.

Karyl Elizabeth Boyd, 42, of Lacebark Drive in Rock Hill, was charged with breach of trust and theft of a controlled substance, according to the report. She was placed in the York County Detention Center, where she remained Tuesday on a $4,000 bond.

Deputies on Saturday met with the owner of the Veterinary Medical Center of Fort Mill, who showed them surveillance footage of Boyd removing morphine from bottles in the office, according to a sheriff’s report. The video showed Boyd with several syringes and a large syringe in her possession, with the larger syringe appearing to have a clear liquid inside.

The thief is seen on video taking the morphine from the lock box, cutting the bottom seal on the box and removing the bottles from the box, deputies said. She removes the morphine with the syringes, then fills the bottles with the clear liquid in the large syringe that she brought to the office.

After filling the bottles, Boyd places the bottles back into the boxes and uses scotch tape to seal the box, the report states. She reportedly did this to four boxes of 40 mg of hydromorphone and a box of 300 mg of morphine.

Boyd, who was terminated Saturday, had only been working at the hospital since Oct. 2, according to Dr. Julie Reck, the hospital owner.

Reck said the medications Boyd reportedly tampered with were part of the hospital’s reserve stock and were not used.

“Thanks to the security footage, we were able to catch this before any diluted medications were used on the patients,” she said.

Reck said Boyd’s actions were reported to her by another employee. She then reviewed the surveillance footage.

Reck told deputies that because of federal guidelines, all the morphine in the lock box was compromised and must be replaced. She valued the morphine at about $2,000.

This story was originally published October 27, 2015 at 11:25 AM with the headline "Employee accused of stealing morphine from Fort Mill animal hospital."