An Arkansas man has been arrested and charged with looting around $10,000 worth of brass vases from military gravestone markers at a rural cemetery, then selling them for $130 in scrap metal, according to authorities.
David Sutterfield Jr., 50, of rural Mountain Home, was booked into the Baxter County jail on Thursday, the Baxter County Sheriff’s Office said.
He is charged with four felonies, including desecration of burial grounds or burial furniture, defacing or damaging an object of public respect, theft by receiving, and first-degree criminal mischief.
Sutterfield also faces a misdemeanor criminal-trespassing charge and an enhancement for being a habitual offender.
The charges are allegations, and Sutterfield is presumed innocent unless he is proven guilty.
What Investigators Say Happened
This all unfolded at Galatia Cemetery, on Arkansas 5 near Norfork in Baxter County, in the northern part of the state. According to the sheriff’s office, it received a report Sept. 7 that several brass vases were missing from headstones at the cemetery. Those vases were valued at an estimated $10,000.
The next day, deputies contacted a local recycling center to ask whether any vases matching the description had been brought in for scrap, according to the sheriff’s office.
An employee said the center had received brass vases matching the description and had cut them up before scrapping and selling them for $130.
Records from the recycling center identified Sutterfield as the person who brought the metal in, the sheriff’s office said.
Investigators also reviewed recycling-center surveillance video that they said showed Sutterfield delivering the cut-up items, according to a probable-cause affidavit reported by KTLO, a local radio station.
History of Arrests
Sheriff John Montgomery said Sutterfield is a habitual offender who has been booked into the Baxter County jail at least 13 times since 2016 on a variety of felony and misdemeanor charges.
Sutterfield has not entered a plea. He was being held on a $15,000 bond and is scheduled to be arraigned in circuit court Oct. 12.
The case has drawn attention because of the target. Brass vases set into gravestones are meant to hold flowers left for the dead, and the ones taken from Galatia Cemetery marked graves the sheriff’s office identified as those of military service members.
That roughly $10,000 valuation reflects the cost of the markers themselves, not the $130 the metal ultimately brought as scrap.
Theft of metal from cemeteries, including bronze and brass vases, urns and plaques, has been a recurring problem for communities across the country as scrap prices have risen. It often leaves families to replace memorials at their own expense.
Authorities did not say how many graves at Galatia Cemetery were affected, or whether the vases could be recovered and restored. Deputies said the investigation is continuing.
