Three Little Rock, Ark., women accused of a purse-snatching, credit card theft spree were arrested May 29 in the Jane area.
Candid Butler, 30; Sherri Thompson, 26; and Jackie Whaley, 38 – all of Little Rock — are charged with forgery, theft of a credit card and fraudulent use of a credit card in McDonald County and are being held in McDonald County Jail on $10,000 bond. Thompson is charged with fraudulent use of a credit card in Newton County.
“They were keeping the road hot and they were moving around pretty quick from place to place which is why they hadn’t been caught,” said McDonald County Sheriff Robert Evenson.
He expects dozens of charges to appear in the next few days. McDonald County was tipped off from an Arkansas incident.
“They were at the Walmart in Rogers where they stole a lady’s purse,” Evenson said. “The lady worked at Walmart and Walmart has got an internal communication system so they let their other stores know and, sure enough, just a little bit later these three women tried to use that stolen information, checks and cards at the Walmart in Jane.”
That internal warning system made the connection and the trio were attempting to leave the Jane Walmart store when the McDonald County Sheriff’s Department arrived.
Sgt. Jeff Berryhill and Deputy Vince Willoughby found several purses and credit and debit cards in multiple names on the suspects and in their vehicle.
Subsequent investigation by Detectives Gary Huff and Bill Davenport revealed that the three suspects had stolen the IDs and credit cards from Arkansas, Tennessee and Missouri.
“These are the ones that we’ve identified,” Evenson said. “This morning they identified five new victims. Just everyday it continues to grow.”
Checking on one incident reveals others, and although the women had approximately 15 identities on them when they were arrested through contacting other local authorities McDonald County has found more. They are using the women’s mug shots to establish links off video surveillance.
“It just continues to snowball,” Evenson said.
The Neosho Police Department was one of the first to file charges outside McDonald County. They called McDonald County about an incident here and discovered the suspect, Thompson, was already in custody.
“Our investigation here discloses that only one of the suspects actually committed a crime in the city here,” said NPD Chief Dave McCraken.
If Thompson posts bond in McDonald County, she will be transported to the Newton County Jail where she will have to bond again. Outside of the City of Neosho, there are no known cases involving the three women.
In an unrelated incident, another woman tried to pass several stolen checks in the city of Neosho and officers are actively investigating the case.
