HERMANN — Move over, Miss Marple. Step aside, Sherlock. Gasconade County Clerk Lesa Lietzow is going to solve this mystery.

Call it the Case of the Purloined Premium Payment — an incident that could have been disastrous for about 50 county government employees, but was quickly corrected by the county clerk.

Here’s the background: The county’s health insurance premium payment earlier this month was intercepted — by someone, somewhere — and apparently never made it to United HealthCare, the county’s health insurance carrier. The company informed the county that coverage for the dozens of employees was being terminated for non-payment. So Lietzow, the county’s chief bill payer and keeper of the records — which showed the payment, indeed, had been made — took on the case which she described as a “health insurance debacle.”

It was not a pleasant investigation. She spoke with a United HealthCare representative, who seemed to find the whole situation amusing, chuckling about the missing payment.

“I told her, ‘You can tell I’m not laughing on this end,’” Lietzow said Thursday morning in telling the County Commission about the incident. The company representative was unaware of one important aspect of dealing with Lietzow: You don’t want to cross the county clerk; it usually doesn’t end well for you.

The clerk succeeded in getting coverage reinstated, although county employees probably weren’t aware they went a week without health insurance. Lietzow was determined to find out why such quick decision was made to pull the plug on coverage.

“There was no reason for the termination to happen,” she told the Commission.

But wait, the plot thickens. The county clerk said while the first premium check incident was cleared up — not completely to her satisfaction — a second incident arose with another insurance premium check being intercepted after being put in the mail. That one, however, was not as much a problem for the county, she said.

“At least that one has not been cashed,” she said, noting that “the bank is working on that.”

The premium payment problems arose during an already extra-busy week for Lietzow and her staff – putting the final touches on the Aug. 6 Primary Elections.

“I’ve been more upset about that (the payment issues) this week than I have about the elections,” she said.

But like a dog that won’t let go of a bone, Lietzow’s not giving up in her pursuit to learn why insurance coverage was cut off.

“I want answers as to the cancellation, why we were canceled,” she said. “Today we’re going back at it. I want to know why 50 people up here were without coverage for a week. This was fully no fault of our own.”

Her tenacity on this seemed to catch the Commission a bit off guard.

“I’m not giving up this fight, even though we’re reinstated,” Lietzow said emphatically. “To me, it’s too important. It’s a battle I’m still fighting. I’ll keep you posted,” she told the county administrators.