A woman accused of writing hundreds of dollars of bad checks from a dead person was arrested last week.
The Piggly Wiggly on U.S. 258 North reported to the Lenoir County Sheriff’s Office on June 4 fraudulent checks had been written and cashed at the store, according to a department report.
The checking account on which the checks were drawn had been previously closed following the death of the account holder.
Melanie Heath, 32, of Spring Court, Kinston, allegedly cashed six checks totaling $730 from the closed account in March.
On Aug. 7, Heath was questioned by the detective division of the Sheriff’s Office and confessed to stealing and forging the checks and then cashing them at the Piggly Wiggly, the report states.
Heath was an acquaintance of the account holder’s son and had found the checks while in the deceased’s home.
“It is not uncommon for my investigators to work these types of cases,” Sheriff Chris Hill said. “In this particular case, the motivating factor for stealing and forging the checks was the suspect’s drug addiction. Many property crimes are directly relational to drug abuse.”
Heath was charged with common law forgery, common law uttering of forged paper, obtaining property by false pretense and possession and transportation of five or more counterfeit interments.
She was arrested and placed under a $95,000 bond and jailed on Friday.Heath’s bond set at $95,000