Since the shooting massacre at Emanuel AME Church, community leaders, celebrities and business owners have donated millions.

More than $3.3 million was donated to victims' families through Emanuel AME Church after Dylann Roof entered the house of worship, killing nine Black churchgoers and injuring others.

Now, more than four years later, the money donated has caused enough controversy to prompt a state investigation, The Post and Courier reported.

Althea Latham, the church’s former secretary, revealed her suspicions to state officials, The Post and Courier reported. Latham said she witnessed people in the church opening envelopes addressed to victims’ families and survivors of the shooting.

Some survivors later told The Post and Courier that mail, which was addressed to them but sent to the church instead, had already been opened and sometimes marked “empty.”

Latham says she raised concerns early on about how transparent the church’s leaders were being about the donations. She said at one point she suggested the church get an outside financial expert to look over their financial records.

After she spoke up, she says her employment was terminated. Church leaders said her contract “simply wasn’t renewed.”

Arthur Hurd, whose wife Cynthia died in the 2015 shooting, said he once saw a woman at the church open donation envelopes and take money out without recording how much came in. He later filed a lawsuit pertaining to the money.

Other victims’ family members have been perturbed by the church announcing that it would give the families $1.5 million and take the remaining $1.8 million, The Post and Courier reported.

Attorney Andy Savage told the local newspaper he is representing three shooting survivors and several of the victims’ families. His office told The Post and Courier they are cooperating with a state investigation.

Rev. Eric S.C. Manning, who was assigned as the church’s pastor after the shooting, said state agents have not reached out to him yet.

“I have no earthly idea what’s going on,” Manning said in an interview with The Post and Courier. “That’s news to me.”

Rev. Norvel Goff, a former interim pastor of the church who worked at Emanuel AME for the first seven months after the shooting, could not be reached for comment, according to the local newspaper.

In the past, when contacted by the newspaper, he has denied any wrongdoing.

A State Law Enforcement Division spokesman declined to speak in detail about the investigation when asked by the local newspaper.

Tragedies, namely mass shootings, can cause spikes in donations in the U.S. for charities, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reported.

In one case, The New York Times reported that victims' families in the Sandy Hook shooting are concerned that local organizations have received the bulk of donations and financial support.

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