A Jenkins County man has been missing since Thursday, and Sheriff Robert Oglesby said he hopes citizens have information that will result in his being found safely.

Louis C. “L.C.” Burroughs, 74, of the Butts community, was last seen in his salvage yard Thursday, Oglesby said.

Burroughs’ family members contacted the Jenkins County Sheriff’s Office Friday with concerns about him, and, “We searched all day,” the sheriff said.

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In addition to Jenkins County sheriff’s deputies, rangers from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and Georgia State Patrol aided in the search. While there is no evidence of foul play, Oglesby said he feels Burroughs’ absence is suspicious.

Saturday, a search team went out again, this time with a team of volunteers “from all over the state,” he said. Around 60 searchers, including cadaver and search K-9s and a helicopter, “combed over 100 acres, and still nothing,” he said Tuesday.

“There is no proof of foul play at this time, and what we have is a missing person,” he said. Burroughs was still missing Tuesday afternoon.

Anyone with information of Burroughs’ whereabouts is asked to call the Jenkins County Sheriff’s office at (478) 982-4211.

Holli Deal Bragg may be reached at (912) 489-9414

A headless body found in a steel drum may be that of a man who went missing on Sept. 14 and is believed to have been killed by his girlfriend’s father, police said Monday.

Investigators believe the body, which hasn’t been positively identified, is that of 55-year-old Gerald P. VanDyke, the Erie Times-News reported.

Last week, Richard A. Houy, of Cambridge Springs, was charged with killing VanDyke, the longtime boyfriend of Houy’s daughter, and disposing of his body. Houy told police that during an argument he punched VanDyke, who fell and struck his head. Houy said he dumped the body in a creek.

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An autopsy found that the man in the steel drum died from a hunting arrow that went through his heart. The body was missing its head and hands, and DNA testing will have to be done to determine the identity.

Houy’s daughter told police he led her to believe that VanDyke’s body, “in whole or in parts,” was placed in barrels or drums, police said. She also told police that she had terminated her relationship with VanDyke and hired an attorney to split the 26 acres of land they jointly owned.

Houy became a person of interest in the case on Sept. 20, when he was suspected of being the source of two anonymous phone calls made to state police about VanDyke, according to an affidavit of probable cause.

In both calls, made the morning of Sept. 18, the caller told police that VanDyke indicated that he was leaving town and didn’t want anyone to know where he was going.

Police said Houy at first denied making the anonymous phone calls but later admitted it.

Houy is being held without bail in the Crawford County jail. No attorney for him was listed on court papers.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Oct. 10.

For the third time in recent weeks the Ohio State Highway Patrol has made a large drug bust.

The latest drug seizure came on I-70 in Madison County. Troopers pulled over a semi from California for a turn signal violation. A trooper brought in a drug-sniffing dog to search the semi and the dog alerted on the truck. Troopers searched the vehicle and found 53 pounds of cocaine in a false-wall in the front of the tractor trailer. It’s estimated to be worth more than $2 million.

The driver, Abraham A. Martinez, 48, of Monrovia, Calif., and passenger, Alfredo Ramos, 49, of Marshalltown, Iowa, were taken to the Franklin County Jail and charged with federal conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine. If convicted, each faces up to life in prison.

http://liarcatchers.com/drugdogsweeps.html

Troopers seized 20 pounds of marijuana on September 18 in Erie County and 42 pounds of cocaine and two pounds of black tar heroin on September 23 in Wood County.

Ohio State Highway Patrol Staff Lt. Anne Ralston says troopers are focusing more on stopping drugs from going through Ohio and keying in on commercial vehicles, which can carry much larger quantities.

Search teams scouring portions of northern Crawford County for signs of a missing LeBoeuf Township man’s body and his pickup truck came across a large, metal drum in some woods in rural Rockdale Township on Saturday morning.

The drum contained a body that was missing its head and hands, according to authorities.

Although investigators believe the body is that of Gerald P. VanDyke, 55, they were unable to confirm the identity during an autopsy conducted in Erie County on Monday. DNA testing will be done, but that process is expected to take some time to complete, Crawford County Coroner Scott Schell said.

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The autopsy, performed by forensic pathologist Eric Vey, M.D., did determine that the person found in the drum died of “sharp force injuries,” Schell said.

State police, in a news release issued Monday afternoon, said the death was the result of a hunting arrow that ruptured the victim’s aorta.

Richard A. Houy, 68, the father of VanDyke’s longtime girlfriend, was charged early Thursday with killing VanDyke and disposing of his body. Houy had admitted to state police investigators that he assaulted VanDyke at Houy’s Rockdale Township residence on Sept. 14. He also told police that he dumped VanDyke’s body in French Creek and abandoned VanDyke’s pickup truck nearby, with VanDyke’s wallet and cell phone on the front seat of the truck, according to case documents.

If the remains found in the drum are determined to be VanDyke, the means of disposing of VanDyke’s body would more closely match what police were told by Houy’s daughter, who was VanDyke’s girlfriend and who was interviewed Thursday. But neither Houy nor his daughter talked of a hunting arrow, according to case documents.

Police said Houy gave his version of what happened to VanDyke after Houy’s daughter was interviewed.

She told police that after going to her father’s home at 21300 Teepleville Flats Road, seven miles south of the house that she and VanDyke shared, at about midnight on Sept. 14, Houy led her to a barn on his property. She said Houy “purposely illuminated” a section of the barn floor, and she saw a large circular pattern of reddish-brown fluid and some reddish-brown droplets that she believed to be blood, according to an affidavit of probable cause that police served with a search warrant for Houy’s property.

The woman also told police she had seen a chain saw in the area, and she believed that it was used in the dismemberment of VanDyke.

She additionally saw a wooden box that she believed may have held VanDyke’s body, according to the affidavit.

She told police that Houy told her that he struck VanDyke in the head with a tire iron or some type of metal bar, and he led her to believe that VanDyke’s body, “in whole or in parts,” was placed in barrels or drums within the barn, according to the affidavit.

The 55-gallon metal drum containing human remains was found in some woods beyond a cornfield off Brown Hill Road in Rockdale Township Saturday morning. Brown Hill Road runs east off Teepleville Flats Road, the road Houy lives on.

Investigators were still searching Monday for VanDyke’s silver 2003 Dodge Dakota pickup truck, with license plate YKW-4528.

Houy is in the Crawford County Correctional Facility without bond on charges of criminal homicide, criminal use of a communications facility, tampering with evidence and false reports to law enforcement. He is tentatively scheduled to appear in court for a preliminary hearing Oct. 10.

A Rockcastle County man was arrested Monday after police say he beat a man with a brick in Perry County and then tried to drown him in a river.

Larry Yocum is in the Kentucky River Regional Jail charged with attempted murder and tampering with physical evidence. According to an arrest citation, a witness told Hazard police that he saw Yocum “murder” Jeffrey Kerr Monday afternoon on the river bank near the city basketball courts.
The witness claimed to have seen Yocum beat Kerr with his fists, break a brick over his head, then drag Kerr out into the water.

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The paperwork goes on to say Yocum put the brick on top of Kerr in an attempt to sink him. When he didn’t sink, the witness claims that Yocum used his foot to push Kerr out into the river.

Kerr was found alive on the other side of the river with severe cuts, skull and brain fragments in his hair and a possible broken nose. So far, there is no word on his current condition.

Yocum was arrested Monday night.

Inside the Gomez home Monday night, family members held frustrated conversations. It is easier than silence, which is too much to bear.

“They must be scared. They’re not home,” said Maria Gomez, talking about her two grandchildren than she has helped raise.

Eight-year-old Dominique, seven-year-old Marcus, and Maria’s husband, 57-year-old William Gomez all disappeared mysteriously on Sunday. Every minute that goes by without word on where they are is maddening.

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Gomez wondered if her husband’s issues with memory loss are to blame for the trio’s disappearance. He said he was taking the kids to the park or the mall around two o’clock, but they never returned home.

“I think he is confused; he thinks he’s driving home,” she said. “He was raised in New Jersey, so he could be driving home… but we don’t know.”

What police do know is that someone using William Gomez’s bank card purchased gasoline in northeast Texas; Little Rock, Arkansas; and Troy, Tennessee.

The card was then used to pay for a $21 charge at a Sears in Padukah, Kentucky. Police said surveillance video showed Gomez with the children in the store, buying underwear. He reportedly asked the clerk for directions back to Dallas.

Tuesday morning, Nicole Rodriguez with the Carrollton police said Gomez’s most recent debit card activity was in the northwest corner of Indiana. They have alerted the Indiana and Illinois state patrols as well as the National Center for Missing Children.

“He’s stubborn that way. Even though he may think he’s lost, he’ll keep driving straight,” said Maria Gomez.

But her husband has never disappeared like this. And he must know he’s far far from home. Have they stopped for food, or sleep? The family can only pray they are pulled over soon and that they’re safe.

Police were searching the Paducah area and nearby hotels for Gomez and his grandchildren. He’s believed to be driving a white Jeep Cherokee, license plate DH1-Y337. If you’ve seen them, please call police.

Pierce County prosecutor Mark Lindquist said that two suspects are in custody in connection with a murder in a Tacoma parking garage on Sept. 5. Lindquist said that he will likely charge the suspects with first-degree murder and first-degree robbery. Other charges may also be filed.

Lindquist applauded police who located the suspect while investigating a different robbery.

Lawrence Howse, 54, was robbed and killed shortly before 10 p.m. on Sept. 5. Police said Howse drove his car into the parking garage of the Sky Terrace Condominiums in the 200 block of S. Broadway in downtown Tacoma.

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Witnesses told police they saw two suspects walk into the garage immediately after the Howse’s vehicle and detectives believe the victim was randomly targeted by the suspects, who robbed the victim before fatally shooting him and running away.

A body discovered three weeks ago in a wooded canyon northwest of Santa Cruz has been identified as Elias Sorokin, a Los Angeles man who was reported missing in 2009 and was believed to have been murdered, Santa Cruz police said Monday.

A man suspected of involvement in an identity theft and counterfeit credit card ring was arrested following a search of his homes in Long Beach and Garden Grove, authorities said.

Los Angeles County sheriff’s detectives from the Carson station on Wednesday served search warrants at the suspect’s homes, allegedly finding a large amount of counterfeiting equipment, encoders, counterfeit cards, computer equipment, counterfeit military identification cards, embossing equipment, credit card readers and forged public seals.

http://liarcatchers.com/identity_theft_investigation.html

The Suspect was booked at Carson Station for alleged possession of Counterfeit Access Cards, Altered Access Cards, Access Card Marking Equipment, Forgery of Public or Corporate Seals, Possession of Scanning Devices, and Possession of a Controlled Substance.