Diane Carol Dancer, 57, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to stealing between $1.8 and $2.8 million from elderly residents while serving as the business office manager at Autumn Leaves senior living facility near White Rock Lake.
Dancer created a shell company and redirected rent checks from residents to that account over the course of seven years, using the funds for personal expenses. The theft occurred while she managed billing at the facility, located in the 1000 block of Emerald Isle Drive.
The facility later credited all affected residents for the payments they had unknowingly made to the fraudulent entity.
Multiple residents, family members, and Autumn Leaves employees testified during the open plea. Dancer entered her guilty plea on June 2, 2025, and was sentenced to 15 years in prison, along with a restitution order totaling $1,817,811.97.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Alicia Patterson and Steve Fawcett, with support from DA Investigator Hoyt Hoffman and Forensic Financial Analyst DeAnna Debenport. The investigation was led by the Dallas Police Department.
