CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- A south Charlotte insurance agency owner was struggling to stay in business when Sallie Rohrbach, the woman he’s accused of killing, showed up at his office to begin her investigation, according to a search warrant obtained by Eyewitness News on Thursday.

On Tuesday, authorities seized files and records from Dilworth Insurance Agency on South Boulevard. Rohrbach, who worked for the state Department of Insurance, was investigating the business and its owner and only employee, Michael Howell, when she disappeared two weeks ago.

Howell is charged with murder in her death.

The Department of Insurance has released little information about why Dilworth Insurance Agency was under investigation, but e-mails in the warrant show there were money issues at the business.

In an e-mail to her supervisor dated Monday, May 12, Rohrbach said Howell was evasive at first when she asked about problems with GMAC, a huge insurance carrier who'd notified Howell in March that they were cutting him off, in their words, because he hadn't sent them premiums in a timely manner.

Rohrbach told her office she was reviewing bank records that might show where that money went.

"There were issues," she wrote on May 13."He is floating money."

The warrant states Howell said he did not have records on the premises that Rohrbach needed to review because, he told her, he was concerned about their safety “due to the frequency of break-ins (and an armed robbery).” Rohrbach e-mailed her supervisor that Howell was going to bring those records to the agency the next day, May 14, for her to review.

Howell would later tell police he last saw her at 4 p.m. May 14.

Two days later, Rohrbach's office reported her missing. Her car was found at a Bojangles’ less than a mile from the insurance agency on May 18, and on May 19, after authorities said they found blood stains in his office, police arrested Howell. Rohrbach’s remains were found in a wooded area near Fort Mill on May 20.

Nearly two weeks later, on Thursday, Howell was granted a court-appointed lawyer.

A judge in Charlotte ruled that Howell has no income and can't afford to hire his own attorney. That overturns another judge's earlier ruling that Howell could pay for his own defense.

Howell was in court Thursday but just listened as attorneys discussed his case with the judge.