Employee accused of stealing $17,000 from Machias cemetery

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, September 11, 2018

MACHIAS — She had been helping out in the graveyard since she was a girl.

Her family was part of the group that bought the small Machias Community Cemetery, on Silva Street, in 1982.

Snohomish County prosecutors charged the woman last week with first-degree theft. They are accusing her of embezzling more than $17,000 from cemetery bank accounts.

The Lake Stevens woman, 46, began working as the secretary and treasurer of the cemetery in 2005, according to court papers. At some point, she reportedly began stealing. Bank records were only available as far back as 2010, the charges say.

Someone would transfer funds from the accounts about once a month. It was usually around $200, but sometimes more. She’s charged with taking $3,150 in July 2015, for example.

Other workers started to notice the cemetery’s financial shortfalls in summer of 2016. The power bill hadn’t been paid one month, and a check to the groundskeeper had bounced, court papers show.

The business’ board of directors voted to hire a new treasurer, but let the woman continue working as the secretary. She reportedly didn’t like the idea.

She was one of two people with permission to look at the accounts. The other person was on vacation at the time. So the board members asked her to meet them at Wells Fargo, so she could help find the problem. The woman refused, according to reports.

When they were finally able to access their accounts, both had been drained.

About a week later, in August 2016, the woman sent a letter to the committee, allegedly admitting to taking the money for her own use. She wrote that she had planned to sell her house, and would use that money to pay it back. She also resigned.

On Tuesday, a summons was sent to her in the mail for her arraignment later this month.

Stephanie Davey: 425-339-3192; sdavey@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @stephrdavey.