A 50-year-old Mountain Home man has been arrested in connection with the theft of brass vases from military gravestone markers at Galatia Cemetery on Highway 5 South near Norfork. Authorities say the vases, valued at approximately $10,000, were reported missing on September 7, 2026.
According to the Baxter County Sheriff’s Office, investigators contacted a local recycling center on September 8 to determine if any of the stolen vases had been brought there for scrap. An employee confirmed that vases matching the description had been received and records identified David Sutterfield Jr. as the individual who sold them. The vases had reportedly been cut up prior to being sold. Sutterfield was paid $130 for the scrap metal.
Sutterfield has been charged with multiple offenses, including desecration of burial grounds or burial furniture, defacing or damaging a public object of respect, theft by receiving, criminal mischief in the first degree – all felonies – as well as misdemeanor criminal trespass. His charges are further classified with a habitual offender penalty enhancement.
Sutterfield is currently being held at the Baxter County Detention Center on a $15,000 bond. Records indicate he has been booked into the same facility at least 13 times since 2016 on various felony and misdemeanor charges.
He is scheduled to appear in Circuit Court on October 12 to answer these latest allegations.
The investigation was led by the Baxter County Sheriff’s Office under the direction of Sheriff John F. Montgomery.