Loyle Garfield Griffith was arrested on the evening of Tuesday (June 3) attempting to clean headstones in the same rural eastern Whitley County cemetery that he allegedly vandalized earlier.
“He provided admission and statement that he had vandalized the cemetery. He was apologetic and showed remorse for his actions,” Whitley County Sheriff’s Major Tony Dingess wrote on Griffith’s arrest citation.
Drug involvement is suspected.
About 9:49 p.m., Dingess arrested Garfield, 48, of Williamsburg, charging him with violating graves and third-offense or more first-degree possession of a controlled substance (methamphetamine).
Garfield was lodged in the Whitley County Detention Center where he is being held in lieu of a $7,500 cash bond.
Earlier in the day, Dingess was dispatched to the Hamblin-Gibbs Cemetery off Upper Mulberry about 15 miles east of Williamsburg.
There he found damage to multiple graves, monuments, headstones and ornaments that were defaced and destroyed. The vandalism took place between the afternoon of Sunday (June 1) and the morning of Tuesday (June 3) around 10 a.m., according to a sheriff’s department release.
Dingess was able to track Griffith down through a woman’s gaming card that was found on a damaged headstone inside the cemetery and through a pair of brown male, size 10 boots that were left at the cemetery, Dingess wrote on the arrest citation.
Dingess spoke to the female owner of the card, who told him that Griffith had allegedly taken items from her wallet last week. The woman also identified the boots from the cemetery as boots that she allegedly saw Griffith wear in her presence prior to the cemetery being vandalized, Dingess wrote.
In addition, Griffith’s mother told police that those were the same type of boots that her son owns, and she indicated Griffith was barefoot on the morning she last saw him on Tuesday (June 3), Dingess wrote on the arrest citation.
On the evening of Tuesday (June 3), Dingess made contact with Griffith in the cemetery, and found him in possession of suspected methamphetamine, the citation stated.
