Former Gobin secretary facing additional charges

Saturday, October 10, 2009

GREENCASTLE -- A Greencastle woman accused of stealing more than $200,000 from Gobin United Methodist Church faces an additional theft charge.

Melynda J. "Mindy" Fenwick, now faces six counts of Class C felony forgery and six counts of Class D felony theft. She is accused of stealing in excessed of $284,000 from the Greencastle church.

The new charge springs from more than $10,000 in unauthorized charges on the church's Wal-Mart credit card.

Further investigation of the church's records have revealed the charges on the church's card from at least November 2008 to August 2009.

According to a statement from Greencastle Police Department Detective Capt. Randy Seipel, "Items purchased using Fenwick's church card includes and are not limited to aquarium supplies, groceries, cosmetics, pet food, medication, household items, gift card, clothing and other miscellaneous items."

The exact amount is not known at this time, and Seipel plans to determine if there is video surveillance available. The transactions all took place at the Greencastle Wal-Mart.

Fenwick was arrested on Aug. 11 after an internal audit revealed discrepancies in the church's financial records. The alleged thefts occurred between January 2005 and August 2009.

She had worked part-time at Gobin since 2004.

According to court documents, Fenwick admitted to writing as many as 100 checks to herself off Gobin's account, as well as to forging signatures on those checks. She also produced a flash drive on which she saved the bank statements she falsified, an affidavit of probable cause said.

Last week, Putnam County Circuit Court Judge Matthew Headley set Fenwick's trial date for Jan. 27, with a pretrial conference on Jan. 7.

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  • oh my goodness, this is just getting to be anightmare. Looks like she will get jail time. Would they keep her here in putnam county or would she go to rockville etc?

    -- Posted by YNOTU2 on Sat, Oct 10, 2009, at 9:32 AM
  • I acn't help but wonder. Did Gobin not have a system of checks and balances? Did the ushers not have an offering counting committee? How could this have went on so long with the amount of money taken and not have been caught sooner?

    -- Posted by Trying hard on Sat, Oct 10, 2009, at 6:23 PM
  • It went on because she provided falsified bank statements to the church. Per the article, part of her confession was to reveal the flash drive where she kept them. Therefore, as long as Gobin's records and the bank's records matched up, who would have thought anything was wrong? It was a quite a scam, and the blame should fall entirely on her.

    -- Posted by cloverfan on Mon, Oct 12, 2009, at 8:31 AM
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