Local Duo Confess To Burglary, Thefts
Warsaw detectives have completed an investigation that involved the burglary to a Warsaw home and home business where a vehicle was stolen and other items taken.
On Thanksgiving morning, Goshen Police were involved in a high speed chase in their city with a pickup truck. During the pursuit the pickup crashed and its passenger fled the scene on foot, but the truck continued. After a second crash, Goshen Police arrested Spencer Cameron Thomas Miller, 21, of Mentone, who was found driving the truck. Goshen Police did not locate the passenger at that time.
The Goshen investigation found the vehicle to be owned by Gary and Marthene Burnau and Burnau Construction. Further investigation determined the pickup had been stolen from their property on the east side of Warsaw.
Information gained in Goshen Police’s investigation determined that the passenger who fled during the first crash was Charles Kason Coffelt, 21, of Warsaw, and he had been involved with Miller earlier in Warsaw.
Warsaw detectives located Coffelt, who confessed to his and Miller’s involvement in a break in to the garage and residence of the Burnau’s. Coffelt and Miller entered the garage and residence while the Burnau’s slept, removing items, including the stolen 1996 Chevrolet pickup truck, $1,000 worth of tools in the truck, two guns, a laptop computer and several bottles of alcohol. The guns were eventually recovered in a retaining pond on the property of Eastgate Apartments on the east side of Warsaw by the Warsaw Police Department’s dive team.
Because of the burglary to the occupied dwelling, and subsequent thefts, criminal charges were forwarded to the Kosciusko County Prosecutor’s Office. Warrants for both subjects have been issued for burglary as a class B felony; theft as a class D felony; and auto theft, a class D felony.
Spencer Miller is still being held at the Elkhart County Jail for the November vehicle pursuit. Coffelt is expected to turn himself into jail authorities in the next few days.
Beside the Kosciusko County charges, both still face potential charges in Elkhart County associated with the Thanksgiving morning incident in Goshen.