Bulldozer in the Lake: Persistence by Conservation Officers results in charges filed against two suspects

It’s been quite a while since a bulldozer was found submerged in the Thousand Islands Lake at Goose Pond at the end of April, 2017.  The case went unsolved, but Indiana Conservation Officers persisted, and charges were filed against two suspects to end 2018. Warrants for their arrest were issued today.

William R. Murphy, 24, and Jared T. Turner, 24, both from Linton, are accused of causing significant damage to an excavator and to the bulldozer that was recovered from the lake, to the tune of $58,981.99 to be exact.

William Murphy

Jared Turner

The investigation, led by Indiana Conservation Officer Greg Swanson working with ICO Mike Gregg, into this incident started around 2 p.m. on Monday, April 30, 2017, when ICO Gregg was contacted by Travis Stoelting, the property manager at the Goose Pond Fish and Wildlife Area.

Stoelting had been checking the property and noticed a John Deere bulldozer that belonged to the State of Indiana was missing. It had been parked in a lot at Thousand Islands Lake, part of the Goose Pond property in Greene County, along with an excavator. The excavator had been moved and Stoelting thought the dozer had been stolen.

When Gregg arrived, he noticed the tracks from the bulldozer ran off into the lake but no tracks came back out. Gregg believed the dozer was in the lake.

After several dives, the dozer was removed from the lake. ICO Swanson reported it was in fourth gear at full throttle, with no key in it. Swanson said this would have allowed someone to have jumped off it while the dozer would still operate until water killed the engine.

At that time, they had no information on suspects.

When Officer Gregg examined the excavator, the front glass was up allowing heavy rains to enter the cab, but he dusted some dry areas for prints and found three partial prints and one human hair on the control arm.

The case went unsolved, and then they got a break, but not until this past July of 2018, when someone was heard talking about the bulldozer that had been driven into the lake a year and three months earlier.

On July 31, Officers Gregg and Swanson were interviewing an individual who had been fishing out at the lake on a day when both the bulldozer and the excavator were still in the parking lot and some teenaged males were also there. This interview led to another interview, and another, and another.

By mid-August, the officers had the names of two suspects, William Murphy and Jared Turner. An individual had overheard these two men allegedly telling someone that they were involved in the bulldozer incident.

Search warrants were granted through Greene Circuit Court to obtain cell phone tower information for the suspects’ cell phones.

In October, both Murphy and Turner were interviewed, in separate interviews at the Linton Police Department. They didn’t admit or offer much information to start, but by the time the interviews concluded, they were more forthcoming and had both told similar stories about what happened. They had been on the excavator before they were on the dozer. The excavator was damaged, but didn’t end up in the water.

According to a lengthy and detailed probable cause affidavit prepared by Officer Swanson, they both agreed Murphy was on the dozer when Turner started it using a screwdriver, and as Murphy jumped off, he smacked the parking brake and the dozer took off toward the water. The two ran to Turner’s truck, watched the dozer enter the water, then fled the scene.

Swanson reported the cost to repair the bulldozer was $47,826.42, the cost to repair the excavator was $8,305.57, and the cost to remove the bulldozer, which included wrecker service, from the lake was $2,850 for a total of $58,981.99.

Chief Deputy Prosecutor Keven McIntosh filed criminal cases against both suspects in Greene Superior Court on Friday, December 28. Charges were approved by Judge Martin over the holiday weekend and warrants were issued today, Wednesday, January 2, 2019.

The suspects will not be hard to find. They’re both currently in the Greene County Jail in connection with other cases pending against them.

Both men are facing charges of:

• Theft – value of property exceeds $50,000, a Level 5 felony,

• Criminal mischief – damage is at least $50,000, a Level 6 felony, and

• Unauthorized entry of a motor vehicle, a Level 6 felony.