Marion County Sheriff’s officials say they have returned most of the 78 cows and calves stolen from a field off the 9100 block of Farthing Road in rural Vernon. So far no arrests have been made, but Detective Kevin Cripps told the county board Tuesday night he feels they will eventually locate those responsible for setting up the theft.
Cripps said the investigation Tuesday led to the location of multiple video surveillance from the Vernon area, south on US 51 to Route 161 to the Noltings Road area where the video tracking ended. He reports the video showing two trucks and trailers making multiple trips to the field and then traveling to a location off the Noltings Road in Centralia.
At a dead end, the sheriff’s department posted on social media photos of the two trucks and trailers and within two hours one of the owners spotted the trucks on the WJBD Facebook Page and called the sheriff’s department to report their family owned the vehicles.
Cripps says it turns out the owners of the vehicles had purchased the cattle from a person who directed them to the Farthing Road location to pick them up. Most of the cattle were then returned to the Farthing Road location later in the day on Tuesday.
Cripps notes a few of the cattle still have not been located and he feels they may have been sold to other people. Cripps is encouraging anyone who purchased cattle over the past week in an unusual manner to contact the Marion County Sheriff’s Department at 618-548-2141, extension 1.
Cripps says the 40 stolen cows and 38 calves have a value of about $90,000.
