Exposing the Reality Behind the "EO Strong" Branding: A Call for Accountability

How a Mission Was Hijacked

For years, Endless Options, Inc. operated under a clear banner: empowering individuals with developmental disabilities to live their best lives through quality care, meaningful relationships, and community integration. The agency advertised a "family environment" grounded in respect, selflessness, and mission-first values.

However, behind public claims of Christian values and supportive culture lies an administrative structure characterized by favoritism, unchecked nepotism, and retaliatory management. Rather than supporting the dedicated staff who clean client homes, drive long-distance transit routes, and administer direct habilitation care, executive management has cultivated a hostile work environment defined by double standards, financial self-dealing, and systematic labor violations.

The Executive Dynamic & Unchecked Administration

When an executive team operates without independent board oversight, administrative overreach inevitably trickles down to direct-care staff. Across dozens of written witness statements, state regulatory filings, and email exhibits, four administrative figures consistently appear at the center of organizational friction:

• Heather Crews (Chief Executive Officer): Demonstrates a persistent lack of leadership backbone, allowing unchecked authority to wage witch-hunts against direct-care staff. Rather than correcting wage violations or defending workers, Heather routinely looks away or remains silent during retaliatory reprimands—choosing to push out long-term employees rather than confront her own compromised ethics.

• Emily Smith (Chief Financial Officer): Acts as the aggressive enforcer of administrative hostility. Emily routinely conducts targeted "witch hunts" over minor documentation blocks, spreads false narratives to cover up management failures, and illegally withholds earned Paid Time Off (PTO) payouts upon employee separation.  

**I am aware that Missouri does not require employers to pay out PTO.  However, it has to be uniform, not because a bully does or does not like you.** 

• Kara Anders (Chief Operating Officer): Alternates between surface-level empathy and retaliatory discipline. Sitting in executive reprimand meetings alongside Heather and Emily, Kara enforces double standards and targets employees who raise workplace concerns.

• Shelly Appel (Direct Supervisor): Works beneath her daughter (Kara Anders) and alongside her other daughter (Emily Smith) in an unmanaged three-generation family hierarchy. Direct-care staff are subjected to retaliatory write-ups, orders to alter client documentation logs, and strict break enforcement while management runs personal errands on company time.

Adding to this toxic environment is CEO Heather Crews’ spouse, client guardian Angie Malone. Despite holding no employment contract with Endless Options, Angie has been granted open, unrestricted access to agency facilities, lock codes, and client files. Staff testimony confirms Angie acts as an unchecked bully toward employees and clients alike—yelling at direct-care workers, insulting their work, and making client demands while executive leadership coddles her and walks away.

By the Numbers: 336 Negative Mentions

The data compiled across verified witness statements submitted to state oversight bodies highlights the sheer scale of employee discontent:

• Emily Smith: 114 negative mentions

• Heather Crews: 106 negative mentions

• Kara Anders: 81 negative mentions

• Shelly Appel: 35 negative mentions

Systemic Violations & Uncovered Pattern of Misconduct

The evidence compiled across regulatory filings with the Missouri Department of Mental Health (DMH), Missouri Medicaid Audit & Compliance (MMAC), the Missouri Attorney General's Office (MFCU), and the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) establishes an ongoing pattern of administrative non-compliance:

1. FLSA Wage Theft & Off-the-Books "Desk Drawer" Cash Payments

Under federal law (29 U.S.C. § 201 et seq.), non-exempt employees must be compensated for all actual hours worked. At Endless Options, management routinely edits employee timecards down, removes earned hours, and fails to allocate paid travel time between consecutive group shifts.

When direct-care staff member Katie Oldham confronted CEO Heather Crews and COO Kara Anders after two hours were stripped from her pay, leadership admitted they altered the timecard to "make a point" and target another worker, Natalie Gittings. To settle the stolen wages off-the-books and avoid their own CFO, CEO Heather Crews handed Katie ~$46.00 in physical cash directly out of her desk drawer.

2. Health Insurance Fraud Conspiracy & FMLA Targeting

In an overheard executive meeting between Heather Crews, Kara Anders, Emily Smith, and Shelly Appel, leadership explicitly conspired to terminate Cynthia McBride—a 24-year employee battling colon cancer on approved FMLA. Leadership stated that Cynthia was "using too much of her insurance" and that they needed to "find a loophole to get rid of her" before she consumed agency funds. Shortly after, management called the cancer policy carrier directly to report her separation, leaving her with 10 days to secure health coverage during active chemotherapy.

3. Real Estate Self-Dealing & Client Exploitation

Client X currently resides in a home in Fayette, MO. Howard County real estate records confirm this parcel is titled to Angie Malone, spouse of CEO Heather Crews. Endless Options manages and bills Medicaid for residential ISL supports for this client while client shelter funds flow directly into the CEO's marital household—a direct violation of non-profit fiduciary duties and 501(c)(3) private inurement rules. When staff installed window A/C units at this residence to fix indoor summer heat exceeding 78°F, upper leadership ordered their immediate removal to save agency energy costs over client physical safety.

4. Concealment of Assaults & Healthcare Refusals

Management routinely threatens direct-care staff with termination if they call law enforcement to report physical or sexual assaults by aggressive consumers—admitting they previously fired a female employee specifically for calling the police. When an employee suffered a severe human bite that broke skin and caused bleeding, management refused to allow him to seek medical evaluation or a tetanus shot, threatening termination if he left the facility.

The Board's Email vs. The Illusion of "Chain of Command"

The Board of Directors recently issued an email to current employees touting an internal four-level grievance procedure:

• Level 1: Informal Resolution with involved individuals.

• Level 2: Supervisor Involvement (facilitated by supervisors like Shelly Appel).

• Level 3: CEO Review (handled by CEO Heather Crews).

• Level 4: Board Review (final decision by the Board).

Expecting employees to report retaliation or wage theft to the very administrators named over 300 times in witness statements is an exercise in futility. You cannot expect staff to trust a "chain of command" built on three generations of immediate family members who actively protect each other while targeting frontline workers.

Standing Together for Full Accountability

To the current and former employees of Endless Options: You are not alone, and your voice matters.

If you are a current employee who chooses to use the Board's internal grievance policy, do so—but keep exact copies of every document and copy external records. History demonstrates that when an employee speaks up internally, leadership eventually executes targeted write-ups, timecard audits, or pretextual terminations.

This investigation will not stop until there is complete transparency, regulatory enforcement, and full accountability for the workers and clients of Endless Options, Inc.