Woman arrested for allegedly depositing stolen check fundraised by Idaho church

PRICE, Utah (ABC4) — A woman has been arrested after a church-fundraised check never made it to the intended recipient and was instead deposited into her account.

Kena Lee Hernandez, 35, was arrested for forgery on Nov. 3. She has not been formally charged yet.

According to the arrest statement, on Oct. 31, 2025, a man contacted the Price City Police Department to report that a check was stolen from him. He stated that he lives in Idaho, and the stolen check was cashed at a credit union in Price City.

The victim told police that he and his wife are staying at a rehabilitation and nursing center in Provo, but they are from Idaho originally. Every two weeks, the victim calls the post office in his hometown and pays to have his mail delivered to him in Provo, documents say.

In Idaho, the victim attends a Lutheran church, and the congregation hosted a fundraiser and collected $3,000 for him and his wife. On Oct. 15, the check and several prescriptions were mailed to him in an envelope.

After a week of not receiving the envelope, he spoke with the receptionist at the rehab facility. The receptionist allegedly told him that nothing had been delivered.

Believing the envelope was lost in the mail, the victim began working with the post office to locate it. According to documents, the post office’s system said it was delivered to the facility on Oct. 20, 2025, but the victim still had not received it.

On Oct. 29, the victim discovered that the check he was waiting on had been deposited at a credit union in Price City. He spoke with the bank that issued the check, which stated it appeared to have been altered.

After reporting the theft to the Price City Police Department, an officer responded to the credit union where it was deposited. The manager reportedly told police that the check was deposited into Hernandez’s account, but it was on hold and didn’t clear. The manager provided a copy to the officer.

Security footage from the credit union showed an individual believed to be Hernandez depositing the check.

The officer compared a photo of the original check with the copy provided by the credit union. Allegedly, a line was drawn over the victim’s name and replaced with Hernandez’s name.

Later, the credit union reported to police that Hernandez had called them multiple times to ask why the check had not cleared and why it was on hold.

On Nov. 3, police located Hernandez and interviewed her. She allegedly told police that she received the check “because she had filled out forms online asking for financial assistance from the church.” She claimed the check was sent to her in the mail.

When asked why her name was not on the check, Hernandez claimed that the church “put a random family member’s name on the check,” and it was addressed to her 6-year-old son. The officer said he “knew her story wasn’t true” and confronted her about the victim reporting the check as stolen and asked how she got it.

Hernandez reiterated that it was sent to her in the mail and that she did not steal it. She was arrested and booked into the Carbon County Jail, where she is currently being held without bail. Documents say she had been arrested for drug-related offenses twice in October.