Prosecutors said she stole $132K from the county. Now they think even more is gone.

An already dire picture of a woman taking money meant for San Diego’s most vulnerable and spending it on everything from plastic surgeries to personal vacations grew even darker this week when prosecutors gave a public update about their ongoing investigation.

The previous estimate that at least $132,000 in San Diego County funds had been stolen by Amy J. Knox, 43, has now been upped to $210,000. What happened to an additional $600,000 is still a mystery. And Knox’s work with a local foundation and the state of New Mexico may have endangered additional taxpayer dollars.

“She has a lot of money ready to go,” Deputy District Attorney Matthew Dix said Wednesday morning in a downtown courtroom. “She’s a flight risk.”

Judge Melinda Lasater appeared to agree. She raised the bail to a half-million dollars — far more than the $300,000 prosecutors were asking — and continued to block any attempt to release Knox from jail until everyone was sure a bail payment wasn’t going to be made with stolen money.

Knox is the former chief operating officer of the Harm Reduction Coalition of San Diego. The organization has long worked to reduce overdoses in the region, especially among the homeless population, and San Diego County gave the group two contracts worth millions of dollars: One to pay for drug tests and the other for distribu...