$136,000 Stolen At Joliet Walmart: Ex-Manager Evades Will Co. Courthouse For Over 1 Year Now

JOLIET, IL — Melissa Vanderwall, a former Romeoville resident and now-fired shift manager at the Jefferson Street Joliet Walmart store accused of stealing bags of money containing $136,000 during a work shift in November 2022, has remained a Will County fugitive for more than a year now, according to a Joliet Patch investigation.

Since 2022, Patch has produced several stories about Vanderwall's criminal case. During the past year, nothing has happened at the Will County Courthouse in regard to Vanderwall's felony theft case.

Eighteen months ago, Vanderwall stopped coming to court, skipping three consecutive pretrial hearings in May and August of 2024, according to court records. And despite court documents indicating Vanderwall was in the process of making restitution, those payments never happened.

On August 19, 2024, Will County Judge Amy Bertani-Tomczak revoked Vanderwall's bond and issued a no-bond bench warrant for her arrest. However, 14 months later, the Will County Sheriff's Office has been unsuccessful at capturing Vanderwall.

She has remained a fugitive at large this entire time.

Vanderwall managed to regain her freedom under the state of Illinois' now-abolished cash bail system.

Vanderwall was kept in the Will County Jail from March 6, 2023, until March 31, 2023; then Will County Judge Amy Bertani-Tomczak cut her bail in half, reducing it from $100,000 to $50,000.

Under the old cash bail system, criminal defendants needed to post 10 percent in order to regain their freedom while awaiting trial. According to court records, Wanda Holland, mother of Melissa Vanderwall and whose address was listed as the same as Vanderwall's, paid her daughter's bond deposit of $5,000 by way of credit card to the Will County Sheriff's Office, on March 31, 2023.

At the time of Vanderwall's release from the Will County Jail, the terms indicated that she must comply with prescribed medical, psychological, psychiatric or substance abuse treatment as ordered, and not have any contact or communication with the alleged victim, Walmart.

Video Surveillance Showed Vanderwall Emptying Both Cash Recyclers: Joliet Police

According to court documents, on Nov. 29, 2022, Joliet police officer Matt Pesce was called to the Walmart store at 2424 W. Jefferson St. to investigate a past theft. A loss prevention employee told Pesce that Vanderwall stole money from two different cash recyclers. The cash recyclers are similar to ATMs, and retail stores use them to restock their cash registers.

Officer Pesche later learned that Walmart's asset protection coach conducted an audit of the cash recyclers and found that the left cash recycler was missing $31,003; the right cash recycler was missing $21,499, and there was also $83,486 in cash missing from the deposit that was housed in the cash recyclers, according to court documents.

The $83,486 deposit was scheduled for an armored vehicle pickup, to be delivered to the bank.

Court documents say video surveillance showed Vanderwall emptying both cash recyclers and placing the cash into a Walmart reusable shopping bag between 3:33 p.m. and 3:38 p.m. on Nov. 27, 2022.

Before leaving the store, officials said Vanderwall gave her manager keys to a fellow Walmart supervisor, claiming she had a family emergency. Vanderwall then left the store with the cash, driving away in her blue Jeep Cherokee, court records reflect.

Judge Accepted Pre-Restitution Plan Before Vanderwall Became A Fugitive

According to court records, Vanderwall returned to the Will County Courthouse in May 2024 and the judge accepted a pre-plea restitution payment plan.

Then on June 5, June 6 and again Aug. 19, 2024, Vanderwall skipped out on her Will County Courthouse hearings, prompting the judge to decide enough is enough, and a no-bond warrant has been issued in Illinois for Vanderwall's arrest.

The Will County Clerk of Circuit Court mailed a notice to Vanderwall, who was living on West Birch Lane in Romeoville, notifying the former Walmart store manager that her $50,000 bond was being forfeited.

On Dec. 15, 2022, a Will County grand jury indicted Vanderwall on two felonies, theft and burglary, following a Joliet police investigation. For over three months, Vanderwall was not taken into custody by authorities in Will County.

When she was taken into custody in March 2023, Will County Jail logs listed an alias for her: Melissa Briscolino. Will County court records also noted that she grew up in Romeoville under the name of Melissa Holland.

Although the Will County Sheriff's Office publishes a weekly Warrant Wednesdays mugshot every week on its Facebook page in hopes of capturing a missing area fugitive, Joliet Patch could not find any mugshot profile for Vanderwall shared by the sheriff's agency during recent months.

In contrast, several of the fugitives posted by the Will County Sheriff's Office were of people accused of having small amounts of methamphetamine or other low-level drug possession charges.

Related Joliet Patch coverage of Melissa Vanderwall:

$136,000 Stolen At Joliet Walmart: Ex-Employee Forfeits Bond

Walmart Employee Faces 2 Felonies, Joliet Police Get Arrest Warrant