Truck and trailer abandoned in Lick Creek by suspect accused of multiple vehicle thefts


Howards Ridge resident David Bushner was surprised to find this Dodge Ram pickup in Lick Creek below his home Tuesday, Feb. 16. The pickup and a trailer attached to it are believed to be among several vehicles allegedly stolen by Jeremiah Partee, 42, of Mountain Home, Arkansas. A news release from the Baxter County Sheriff’s Department in Mountain Home, where Partee was arrested Feb. 17, said Partee, who was on parole, “has been incarcerated in the Baxter County Detention Center a total of 44 times since 1997.” He has also been in the Arkansas Department of Corrections or a Community Corrections Center “at least three 3 times” and in the Missouri Department of Corrections “at least twice,” the news release said.

It was 10 below zero Tuesday morning, Feb. 16, at David and Heather Bushner’s Howards Ridge home when David, up before dawn to try to thaw the frozen water in their well house, heard a loud screeching noise off in the distance. 

He wondered about the sound but continued working on his frozen well. Later,  with the sun up, he took a few minutes to walk into the woods near their house to record some video for an Ozarks outdoors project he’s working on. 

“I was panning around, and I see something in the creek and think, ‘Is that a vehicle? Are you kidding me?’” Bushner told the Times. He realized the screeching sound he’d heard must have been the truck scraping, and getting stuck, on the large rocks just below the surface of the creek. 

Then Bushner saw a man moving through the woods below him. Thinking the man had come from the vehicle, a Dodge Ram pickup attached to an empty boat trailer, Bushner yelled out, asking if the man needed help.

It turned out the man was a resident of East Wind Community, which lies across Lick Creek from the Bushners’ property. Both properties adjoin Corps of Engineers land on the part of the creek where it flows into Norfork Lake. 

The man, who said his name was Richard, told Bushner the truck had come flying down the county road (547) early that morning and drove through the East Wind gates, which happened to be standing open at the time. The truck continued onto Corps property and drove for a distance along the creek, Richard said, apparently looking for a place to cross. Then the truck’s driver drove into the water and continued driving up the creek bed until the truck got stuck on the big rocks. 

Apparently, the driver then got out of the truck, waded through the frigid water and fled into the woods. 

 

A string of vehicle and trailer thefts

What neither David or Richard knew that morning when they were surveying the stuck truck was that the suspected driver, 42-year-old Jeremiah Dean Partee of Mountain Home, Arkansas, had allegedly stolen the Dodge Ram from West Plains. He then drove the vehicle into Ozark County, where he apparently stopped at another house, hooked onto a trailer and hauled it to the East Wind creek access in an apparent attempt to cross the waterway and get away with the stolen items.

The men were also unaware that Partee was suspected of stealing several other vehicles and trailers in the three days prior. Authorities say he was reportedly hooking onto trailers at area businesses, including two trailers at Hirsch Feed and Farm Supply in West Plains, one at Endurance Church and another at South 63 Motors, and allegedly driving away with them. Partee reportedly hooked onto the trailers in various vehicles he also stole from the West Plains and Mountain Home, Arkansas, areas, only to dump them in another location when it was convenient for him. 

“He literally dumped one [trailer] in the middle of the road in West Plains,” Ozark County Sheriff’s Deputy Justin Brown told the Times last week. 

The West Plains Police Department had posted security photos and video clips from that area showing a suspect, now believed to be Partee, in the stolen vehicles with the trailers.

 

A foot pursuit, and another stolen car

Brown told the Times that he became involved in the Tuesday, Feb. 16, incident when an East Wind Community member contacted the Ozark County Sheriff’s Department to report that a vehicle had come flying through their gate, and the truck and trailer were stuck in the creek. 

“We went down there to check it out,” Brown said. “I was going to go around to the other side of the creek (where the Bushner residence is), and I saw tracks in the snow along the creek.”

Brown followed the tracks and soon spotted a man on the dirt road.

“He took off on foot, and I followed him,” Brown said. With a hefty lead and acres of wooded area to hide, the officer soon lost sight of the man and the foot pursuit ended. 

Now it’s thought that, after escaping from the truck in Lick Creek Tuesday morning, the driver, believed to be Partee, trudged through the snow-covered woods and eventually returned to Highway 160, where he crossed the roadway and made it to the home of Brian Corbin. 

Joe Corbin, Brian’s father who lives in another house on the property, told the Times that about midday Tuesday, Brian responded to a knock on the door and found a man – bleeding and wet, with possible frostbite and an injured hand – asking for help. The man, believed to be Partee, said he’d had an accident. He told Brian he lived nearby and asked Brian if he could help him get home, Joe Corbin said.

“So Brian, Good Samaritan, loaded him in his old car,” Corbin said, referring to Brian’s 2005 Ford Taurus. “He started it up, and for some reason, they decided they needed a blanket. Brian went back to the house to get the blanket, and the guy left in the car.”

Partee then allegedly drove the stolen Taurus into Baxter County, Arkansas. 

 

Sliding on ice, vehicle pursuit of 80 mph, another crash and handcuffs

The case went cold for several hours until Wednesday evening, when the stolen Ford Taurus was spotted in Mountain Home. 

According to a press release from the Baxter County Sheriff’s Department, a deputy there met Partee in the stolen vehicle on Walker Road, also known as Baxter County Road 27, just outside of Mountain Home. The release says the car was heading toward Highway 5 north. Other officers in the area met the vehicle at the intersection of Walker Road and Highway 5 north. 

“The driver, Partee, tried to drive past the patrol cars. He slid on the ice and went [into] the ditch,” the press release says. “Partee was able to quickly extricate himself from the ditch and made it to Highway 5 north, and he then drove toward Mountain Home.”

Baxter County deputies initiated a vehicle pursuit, and Partee hit the gas, reaching upward of 80 mph during the chase. Just after 5 p.m., Partee crashed the stolen car on First Street near Highway 62B in Mountain Home. He fled on foot to a nearby business, Town and Country Motel, and attempted to hide inside a motel room.

Officers followed Partee, located him in the room and took him into custody.

 

An addition to a lengthy criminal career

A West Plains Police Department news release said that its officers interviewed Partee Feb. 18 in Mountain Home, and “during the interview, Partee implicated himself in stealing the trailers and vehicles and gave information to investigators which led to the recovery of a majority of the stolen property.”

At press time, Partee was being held in the Baxter County Detention Center on multiple charges with a bond of $50,000. Holds have been placed on him by Ozark and Howell counties, where additional charges are expected. 

The news release says records show that Partee “has been incarcerated in the Baxter County Detention Center a total of 44 times since 1997 on various charges and court commitments” and that he “has been sent to the Arkansas Department of Corrections or a Community Corrections Center at least three 3 times and has been incarcerated in the Missouri Department of Corrections at least twice.”

He is scheduled to appear in Baxter County Circuit Court on April 15. 

 

A potential previous encounter?

Meanwhile, Bushner can’t help but wonder if it was Partee who drove a truck into the driveway of the remote Bushner property around 5 a.m. about a month ago.

“It was a truck, with two people in it,” he said. “The truck had a trailer, and the guy had a motorcycle in the back. It kind of looked like the motorcycle was thrown in the back. The driver was trying to turn around.”

Bushner approached the truck and asked what was going on. “The driver said, ‘Oh, I’m trying to get out of here. I’m somewhat lost and about out of fuel. Would you happen to have some gas?’” Bushner recalled.

He asked where the driver was trying to go.

“I’m needing to go to Bullseye,” the driver told him. 

Bushner asked where he had come from, and the driver told him he “came across T Highway” to J Highway before turning down the county road that led to the Bushner property.

Bushner thought “his whole story was odd,” but he gave the man some gasoline and told him how to get to Bullseye in Gainesville. The other man in the truck, wearing a hoodie and shorts, “kept his head down and never spoke or looked up,” Bushner said. 

Ozark County Times

504 Third Steet
PO Box 188
Gainesville, MO 65655

Phone: (417) 679-4641
Fax: (417) 679-3423