By Kelly Roy King
Oregon police served two search warrants and nabbed three suspects in conjunction with 14 Oregon church burglaries.
Tigard and Beaverton, Ore. police and Washington County Sheriff officers acted on several anonymous tips Thursday, July 20, and arrested Gregory Patrick Schley, 19, Richard Glenn Blount, 19, and Timothy Lee DeGeorge, 21, said Sgt. Michael Janin of the Beaverton Police.
The three suspects were charged with second-degree burglary and are being held at the Washington County Jail in Hillsboro, Ore on $10,000 bail, Janin said.
Police searched two houses in Tigard and found stolen property linked to several of the church burglaries, said Jim Wolf, public information officer for the Tigard Police.
Wolf said investigators obtained blood samples from the suspects to compare with blood taken from the crime scenes.
Some of the evidence confiscated during the searches was marked LDS, linking those items to several of burglarized churches belonging to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Janin said.
Wolf said the church burglaries and vandalism were most likely crimes of opportunity because the criminals knew that security systems at churches aren’t as sophisticated as commercial locations.
Other than the evidence linked to the church burglaries, police found other evidence linking the suspects to other burglaries around the Tigard area, Janin said.
Police were happy upon finding evidence other than the stolen church items because it meant the suspects weren’t targeting just churches, Janin said.
“We are very excited that someone was apprehended. We’re also happy the crime wasn’t directed in anger at the churches,” said Karen Breaner of the Prince of Peace Lutheran Church that was burglarized.
“We identified one item from our church the police recovered and that’s helped with the investigation,” said Carl Stubblefield of the Southwest Bible Church.
Stubblefield is praying the government will enforce the laws of the land, he said.
The burglary investigation is still continuing and there could possibly be more arrests in the future, Janin said.
