Theme park theft: $1M-plus Authorities say embezzlement took place over decade

COEUR d’ALENE — Two Post Falls residents were arrested Thursday evening and charged with five counts each of grand theft for allegedly embezzling more than $1 million from Athol’s Silverwood Theme Park.

Melissa K. Foeller, 44, and Christopher A. Wyatt, 43, were arrested Thursday by Post Falls police at their respective homes on the 2100 block of Wagon Trail Loop, and 1600 block of Yaquina Drive.

A beleaguered-looking Foeller appeared Friday in First District Magistrate Court, where she was formally charged and a public defender was appointed. Her arraignment is set Jan. 7 before Judge Scott Wayman in Coeur d’Alene.

Wyatt posted bail, according to authorities, and his court file is sealed until he appears before a judge.

Foeller, who worked as an account manager at Silverwood until last year, is accused of stealing more than $500,000 from Silverwood over a decade.

She and Wyatt, the business’s chief financial officer, are believed by investigators to have embezzled more than $1 million from the North Idaho theme park.

In a memorandum that called for the $50,000 bond, deputy prosecutor Casey Simmons said Foeller has no criminal record. However, the crime was especially egregious because she was trusted by her employer, and despite being placed in a position of authority she continued since 2008 to systematically steal money from her employer.

“(She) continued to engage in the theft over a course of many years,” Simmons wrote in her memorandum. “(The) defendant is an educated woman who knew what she was doing, and that it was wrong.”

In a police interview, Foeller admitted to stealing money, Simmons said.

Foeller looked disheveled Friday wearing orange pajamas when she appeared before Magistrate James D. Stow. Stow explained her case would proceed directly to district court because she was indicted by a grand jury earlier this week.

The maximum penalty for felony grand theft is a $10,000 fine and 20 years in prison.

Located 15 miles north of Coeur d’Alene, the Silverwood theme park regularly attracts more than 650,000 summer visitors. A Department of Commerce study several years ago pegged its annual economic impact around $80 million.