A Green River woman accused of stealing nearly $200,000 from the Rock Springs hotel she managed will face a felony theft charge for allegedly zeroing out hundreds of invoices and payments and pocketing the cash.
Melissa Fran Hutchinson, 49, was bound over to Sweetwater County District Court on Friday and will make a plea at a yet-to-be-scheduled arraignment hearing, the court reports.
Her April 20 arrest came nearly a month after a warrant was issued for her on allegations that she adjusted legitimate invoices at the Comfort Inn & Suites Hotel from 2023 through the beginning of 2025, according to an affidavit of probable cause filed in her case.
She would mark the balances of the invoices as $0, “then the charges were later added in an attempt to make it appear the balance was paid upon checkout,” the affidavit says.
The findings came after a long-term investigation into alleged fraud and embezzlement at the hotel.
There were 334 fraudulent invoices in all, the affidavit says, adding up to a little more than $199,000 that should have been paid to the Comfort Inn & Suites.
That’s in addition to alleged off-the-books cash deals Hutchinson made for long-term stays in which she, as the manager, would reportedly instruct other hotel employees to take cash payments, the document adds.
The former owner of the hotel — it was bought by a new management company in April 2025 — said he fired Hutchinson and that “he kicked out people who were not legitimately staying on the books at the hotel,” the affidavit says.
Hutchinson is free on a $35,000 surety bond, court documents show. A message left at a number listed for her was not returned by the time this story was published.
Same Fake Information
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.
Make False Reservations
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.
If convicted on the single charge of felony theft, Hutchinson could face up to 10 years in prison, a fine of up to $10,000, or both.
Greg Johnson can be reached at greg@cowboystatedaily.com.
