A 49-year-old Green River woman is accused of defrauding the hotel she managed out of nearly $200,000 by pocketing cash for hundreds of zeroed-out invoices and payments from long-term guests.
An affidavit supporting a felony theft charge against Melissa Fran Hutchinson filed Wednesday in Sweetwater County Circuit Court details a long-term investigation into the alleged fraud and embezzlement uncovered a scheme from 2023 through the beginning of 2025.
Hutchinson allegedly adjusted legitimate invoices to $0, “then the charges were later added in an attempt to make it appear the balance was paid upon checkout,” says the affidavit.
Those invoices — 334 in all — came to $199,066.49 that should have been paid to the Comfort Inn and Suites in Rock Springs.
In addition, Hutchinson also would allegedly make off-the-books deals with guests for long-term stays, charging them cash, the affidavit says.
She had been working at the hotel since 2018 and was promoted to general manager in 2021, the document says. She was ultimately fired by the hotel’s owner when he discovered the fraud.
The owner “stated he terminated Hutchinson … (and) stated he kicked out people who were not legitimately staying on the books at the hotel,” the affidavit says.
Hutchinson is wanted on a warrant for felony theft, and could get up to 10 years in prison, a fine of up to $10,000, or both if convicted.
Fake Names And Addresses
Part of the alleged deception was using fictitious names and addresses for guests, which stood out as odd, the affidavit says. Many of the fake names and addresses would be mixed, matched and repeated.
For example, the affidavit points out that the same home address for some guests came from Russian Mission, Alaska, a tiny town of about 400 people.
“There are numerous recurring addresses attached to many different names attached, and many of the names were fake,” the affidavit says. “And similar names would stay in the same room consecutively.”
A detective also noticed that many rooms would have someone check in within minutes of someone checking out, allowing for no time for housekeeping to clean the rooms.
Then there are recurring addresses from various states that, after investigating them, don’t actually exist, the affidavit says. That includes 379 Western Hills in Pensacola, Florida; 1396 Virginia St. in Hurlburt Field, Florida; and 1512 Haven St. in West Haven, Utah.
“A large portion of these addresses (the detective) could not find when searching online maps,” according to the affidavit.
In many cases, the document alleges that Hutchinson, in her position as the hotel’s general manager, instructed other employees to perpetuate the deception.
“Numerous employees and guests that were identified in relation to these invoices reported Hutchinson as creating or telling her workers to create these fake names on reservations for guests she was allowing to stay there,” the affidavit says.
And Some Real People
Not all the transactions for the fraudulent invoices involved made-up names and addresses, the affidavit says.
“Some of these guests stayed for long term and paid Hutchinson directly with cash from their rooms,” according to the affidavit. “Some guests reported being allowed to stay free of charge.
“Former employees described being told by Hutchinson to just make the fake reservations and make the adjustments so it looked like the balance was paid, when it was not.”
During the course of the investigation, the affidavit says the investigator also talked with a number of those long-term guests, who reported paying Hutchinson in cash for weeks — and sometimes months — at a time.
• One person said he paid $250 every two weeks for 17 weeks, for a total of $2,125.
• Another said he paid her $1,732 directly.
• Yet another said she paid $150 cash every week to stay at the Comfort Inn for a year, for a total of about $7,800.
Calls to the Sweetwater County Attorney’s Office and Rock Springs Police Department for more information were not returned by publication time.
As of Friday afternoon, Hutchinson had not been arrested, the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office reports.
Greg Johnson can be reached at greg@cowboystatedaily.com.
