How investigators linked Columbia County church burglary to multi-state investigation
LODI, Wis. (WMTV) - What began as a burglary at a rural Columbia County church quickly grew into a multi-state investigation, with detectives crediting investigative work and collaboration between law enforcement agencies with helping identify two suspects.
The Columbia County Sheriff’s Office announced earlier this week that two Plainfield, Illinois men were charged in connection with the November 2025 burglary at Lake Wisconsin Evangelical Free Church.
Detective Captain David Clark said one of the biggest breaks in the investigation came when a detective recognized similarities between the burglary and information shared by another law enforcement agency.
“That was a major factor in this from our detective to recognize, ‘Hey, this sounds like something I read recently from a different agency,’ and then the interagency collaboration and information sharing to be able to identify that these suspects had been operating in different states and they’re from three to four hours away from here,” Clark said.
That collaboration helped investigators connect the Columbia County burglary to similar church break-ins in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky. But first, detectives needed a lead in their own case.
Investigators say the case took a significant turn after they tracked down one of the stolen items.
“About a week or so after the burglary had occurred, there had been some very specific items taken, some sound equipment and a guitar where the owner had the serial number and that particular guitar was found for sale on eBay at a guitar shop down in Illinois. So we were able to develop a suspect through the sale of that guitar at the guitar shop in Illinois,” Clark said.
That discovery gave investigators their first major lead. Detectives then used license plate reader cameras, phone records and other investigative techniques to continue building the case.
“When they started digging into that person, they were able to locate information on a vehicle that he drove. And we were able to find that that vehicle had been in Columbia County the night of the burglary through plate reader cameras,” Clark said.
Authorities later recovered the stolen guitar from the Illinois guitar shop, though much of the remaining stolen sound equipment has not been recovered.
“None of the other items, the sound equipment that we had serial numbers for were actually pawned. So there was no records of that. They were sold hand to hand or some other way,” Clark said.
The investigation also left detectives with a message for anyone who owns valuable electronics or musical instruments.
“If you have high-end electronics or musical instruments or anything of high value like that, having that serial number available if it’s stolen is very helpful to us because it helps us really lock in that when we find an item, it is that item. So, I’d encourage everyone to document that information,” Clark said.
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