A 29-year-old Soldotna resident was arrested Sunday after police say she stole more than $2,000 from her workplace over three days.
According to a press release from Soldotna Police Department, they were notified of burglaries at a local business — identified in charging documents as Lucy’s Market — on Jan. 17, 19 and 21. It says they worked with the business owner to identify Landis Whybark-Marshall as a suspect. Whybark-Marshall was arrested after alleged stolen items were found with a search warrant.
Whybark-Marshall was charged with three counts of second-degree burglary, two counts of second-degree theft, two counts of tampering with physical evidence and one count of fifth-degree criminal mischief.
According to a dismissal filed to the case, the three charges of burglary, which all describe the alleged crime of entering and remaining unlawfully in a building with the intent to commit a crime, were dismissed by the prosecution.
An affidavit by Soldotna Police Officer Mitchell Burdick says that Whybark-Marshall had been employed at Lucy’s since September 2021, and that she is believed to have entered the building using a key — there was no forced entry.
Security camera footage from the business, the affidavit says, shows Whybark-Marshall moving in the dark by the light of a cellphone, manipulating a cash box, and leaving a knife by the cash box.
“During one of the video clips, Whybark-Marshall looks up and sees the camera is recording,” the affidavit reads. “She then removes the camera and the feed is shut off.”
According to the affidavit, Whybark-Marshall allegedly stole around $2,300 in cash, a payroll check made out to another employee for around $400, a camera and a router.
Security camera footage from a nearby business shows a vehicle “similar in shape and size” to a red 2016 Chevy Cruze historically connected to Whybark-Marshall, according to police.
While searching that vehicle under a warrant, the affidavit says police found coin wrappers like those that would be found in a bank bag that Whybark-Marshall allegedly stole as well as envelopes with the names of other employees. In her home, they found a door key for Lucy’s.
While detained, the affidavit says that Whybark-Marshall said there was nothing else at her home — “I don’t have the stuff.”
The affidavit doesn’t say that any of the cash, the check, the camera or the router were found.
Whybark-Marshall was arrested and taken to Wildwood Pretrial Facility. She was arraigned on Tuesday and has preliminary hearings scheduled for both Feb. 2 and Feb. 12 at the Kenai Courthouse.
Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.
