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Last updated on Monday, September 19, 2016
(ORANGE CO.) - What started as an investigation into the theft of a vehicle in Jasper turned into a multi-state, multi-agency involved case.
On August 25, Jasper Police Department Officer Chris Fischer received a report of a possible vehicle theft from Meyer Logistics in Jasper.
The complainant had received a phone call from the Louisville Metropolitan Police Department that one of their trucks had been found abandoned in Louisville, Kentucky. As Meyer Logistics investigated the whereabouts of the truck, they found that it was in fact stolen on August 21.
The stolen vehicle was equipped with a GPS tracking system. Officer Fischer received the routes and locations the truck had been driven from the time it was stolen to the time it was recovered by Louisville police. Officer Fischer learned that the truck had been driven to a home in Paoli, where it had stopped for a significant amount of time.
Officer Fischer contacted Indiana State Police Trooper Brock Werne and asked if he would check the residence in Paoli to see if there was a reason the truck had stopped there or if an additional crime had occurred at that address.
Trooper Werne and State Police Sergeant Chad Dick checked the home, finding that a barn on the property had been burglarized.
Trooper Werne contacted the property owners, who were current residents of Houston, Texas.
Werne sent pictures of the barn and the property to the owners, who informed Werne that numerous items had been taken, including a 1987 Indian motorcycle and numerous pieces of home furnishing.
Trooper Werne and Officer Fischer continued their investigation, following up on leads that eventually lead them to speak with 25-year-old Matthew Snyder of Bristow, IN.
Officers spoke with Snyder and later learned that he had assisted in stealing the truck from Meyer and was involved in stealing the items from the barn in Paoli.
Officers also learned that the stolen items had been taken to a home in Louisville.
On September 2, officers met with detectives from Louisville and went to the home where the stolen items were taken.
Once there, officers were given consent to search the property and found all items stolen from the barn except for the Indian motorcycle, that had been sold to another individual.
Police contacted the person who had purchased the motorcycle and asked him to trailer it to the Louisville home where all the stolen items were recovered and secured by the original owner.
On Saturday, Orange County Circuit Court issued arrest warrants for Snyder and a second suspect, 38-year-old Coy Crawhorn. of Jasper. Both are wanted on charges of burglary and theft.
Snyder is being held in the Louisville Metro Corrections Center on unrelated charges and will be served with the warrant and extradited upon his release.
Crawhorn remains at large.
The Indiana State Police is asking that anyone with information regarding the whereabouts of Crawhorn contact the Jasper Post at 1-812-482-1441.
Investigating Agencies: Indiana State Police, Jasper Police Department, Louisville Metropolitan Police Department, Houston Texas Police Department, Crawford County Sheriffs Department
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