ST. LOUIS – Forget the fictional Carmen San Diego. Missouri State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick wants to know where the former St. Louis Circuit Attorney is.

“Have you seen Kim Gardner? Do you know where she is?” Fitzpatrick said.

The St. Louis Board of Alderman first requested the audit of the Circuit Attorney’s Office in 2018. The audit began in 2018. Gardner resigned in May 2023.

“We have sent a letter. We’ve contacted multiple attorneys who have or are representing her. We’ve contacted former colleagues of hers in the general assembly, made dozens of phone calls, and unsuccessful attempts to serve a subpoena through a process server,” Fitzpatrick said.

There’s been no response through any of those channels.

“To Kim Gardner, I want to say it’s not too late to do the right thing,” Fitzpatrick said. “You swore an oath to the people of St. Louis. You may have resigned, but your resignation does not end your responsibility to answer to the people of St. Louis about your time in office.”

Fitzpatrick says his office has identified inappropriate expenditures and management issues that they want to give her the opportunity to explain.

“So, I don’t want to sit here and say…the goal is not to have criminal charges,” he said. “The goal is to let the facts lead us where they may. And if the result of that is criminal charges, then that is what it is.”

Fitzpatrick says his office will issue the audit results by the end of 2024, with or without Gardner’s involvement.