Reward offered to help solve rural Butler County church burglaries

A $1,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person(s) responsible for a recent rash of burglaries at rural Butler County churches.

“Over the course of about two to three months, there has been a rash of church burglaries in which the suspects utilized the same pattern with respect to how entrance was made and the items taken,” said Butler County Sheriff Mark Dobbs.

The stolen items, he said, have included mostly electronics, sound equipment and musical instruments, as well as computer equipment, such as laptops.

A small amount of cash, he said, also has been reported missing.

“We’ve had a few other church burglaries (in the past), but nothing as frequent as these recent ones,” Dobbs said.

The churches that have been burglarized are “small in number and in somewhat rural locations,” Dobbs said. “One of the big disadvantages to investigating these is that there is not someone there every day.

“Oftentimes, it is not discovered for several days that the church has been burglarized.”

That, he said, makes it hard to pinpoint a time when the crime occurred.

Dobbs said it is usually between Wednesday night services and Sunday or between Sunday services and Wednesday night.

“Hit some church at midnight, there’s a zero chance of anyone being there,” Dobbs said. “They’re there on Sunday and Wednesday and that’s about it.”

With the hope to generating “some leads and some information to give us a starting point,” Dobbs said, the board for the Butler County Law Enforcement Restitution Fund was approached about “allocating money from the board for the arrest and conviction of the responsible party.”

Information is being sought regarding the burglaries at:

• Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church, County Road 613 and Highway AA, Broseley, March 19 and May 19;

• New Home Missionary Baptist Church, 1093 County Road 620, Broseley, March 24;

• Bay Springs Baptist Church, 6793 County Road 450, Poplar Bluff, March 29;

• Heartland Christian Fellowship, 3025 S. Westwood Blvd., Poplar Bluff, April 21;

• Pleasant Hill Baptist Church, 2295 County Road 634, Fisk, May 5; and

• Lone Oak Baptist Church, 12104 Highway 51, Broseley, May 18.

In an effort to curb the burglaries, “we try to do extra patrols, but with limited manpower it’s a pretty big challenge,” Dobbs said. “Given the distance between all the churches, it’s kind of hard to do.”