RESERVE — A local woman, arrested this week, is linked to numerous bank and check fraud investigations across the East Bank of St. John the Baptist Parish and beyond, authorities said.

Vanessa Marie Greenup, 48, of Reserve is charged with principal to monetary instrument abuse – bank fraud, two counts of principal to forgery, two counts of monetary instrument abuse and bank fraud. She is also being held on fugitive warrants from St. Charles Parish and Iberville Parish.

She was arrested Wednesday, and was being held as of Friday morning under an $85,350 bond.

The St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff’s Office announced its financial crimes detectives began a check fraud investigation Aug. 2 after a woman, who they identified as Greenup, cashed a check at a Reserve business, only to have it returned as counterfeit by the bank.

Deputies responded to the same business Aug. 12 when an alert employee reported the same woman was back, attempting to cash a check.

“As an employee was attempting to verify the check, Greenup exited the business, leaving her Louisiana identification behind,” a Sheriff’s Office release said.

St. John Parish Sheriff’s Office deputies and the Louisiana Attorney General’s Fugitive Apprehension Unit later arrested Greenup in LaPlace.

Authorities said their investigation uncovered Greenup negotiated additional forged checks at a LaPlace bank in 2017 and 2015.