Dawn Brixey, assistant director of admissions office operations at Missouri State University and the wife of Mark Brixey who admitted to stealing money from the bookstore, quit her job at the university.

The university has not disclosed the reasons behind her resignation.

Missouri State University president, Clif Smart, said that she quit before college officials could question her about her role in the embezzlement.

Mark Brixey, former bookstore manager at MSU, pleaded guilty in a federal court last month to embezzling more than a million dollars over a period of eight years through the student textbook buy-back program.

Brixey is accused of theft, wire fraud, filing false tax reports and money laundering. He admitted to swindling $1,163,237.39 from 2003 to 2012.

If convicted, Brixey could face a maximum sentence of 43 years.

The Missouri State auditors discovered the theft, last summer, when they found $81,000 in cash in Brixey's desk while he was on vacation.  During investigations they also found $400,000 missing over the past four years.

The university had set Brixey a deadline of Aug. 17 to explain about the missing money and the money that was found in the book store's desk. Instead, Brixey resigned.

Investigators allege that Brixey converted checks from textbook companies to cash, rather than using the money to buy back textbooks from students, kept money gained from selling discontinued books to bulk book-buyers and converted money deposited in his credit union account to a certificate of deposit and didn't declare more than $194,000 in stolen cash on his 2010 return.

MSU allows students to sell their textbooks to a company operating on campus.

As part of an agreement with the university, Illinois-based Follett Educational Services bought used text books from students and gave a commission directly to Brixey.

Brixey said that he needed the money to buy books from students.

The university is hopeful about recovering their full stolen amount through a $1 million employee theft insurance policy and a total of $144,000 had been confiscated by federal investigators.