Nothing compares to the beauty of agriculture. A late-June ride-along with a Kosciusko County Sheriff's officer offered an opportunity to appreciate its splendor.
Last Tuesday as we patrolled the rural corners of northern Kosciusko County, up and down S.R. 19 and east and west along C.R. 1350 North, I couldn't help but notice the simple things. On this unseasonably cool evening, wheat fields appeared as golden waves and formed a stark contrast with the solid green of a corn field growing nearby.
Horses, confined to a pasture, seemed content to spend this evening chewing grass and giving only a passing glance to cars or bicyclists riding by.
On beautiful little farms, children played on swing sets and the adults soaked in the children's enthusiasm as they watched from lawn chairs.
Up in the sky, there was a beautiful display of orange and pink hues as the day slowly transitioned into evening.
A week earlier, I had been granted permission by the sheriff's office to ride along with one of their deputies, Sgt. Chris Francis, who was patrolling the area in response to a series of intentionally set barn fires.
At 7:58 p.m. in Nappanee, I stepped into Francis' marked pickup and we headed south on S.R. 19, eventually turning east onto C.R. 1050 and looping back around several times. He said Sheriff Kyle Dukes ordered stepped-up patrols, of both marked and unmarked vehicles, after an arsonist set fire to two barns and an Amish school south of Nappanee during the overnight hours on Friday, June 11.
These fires were the latest in a series dating back to late April. Sheriff departments in Elkhart, Kosciusko and St. Joseph (Ind.) counties, as well as the city of Nappanee and the Indiana State Fire Marshal's office, are involved in the ongoing investigation.
"We've been flooding the area," Francis said. "Nappanee Police Department and Elkhart County (Sheriff Department) had units out last week, flanking the whole area."
Thus far, the patrols haven't produced any suspects.
"There's nothing, which is just frustrating," he said.
As we passed through places like Chuppville and Hepton, the sergeant's pickup cast a long shadow underneath a setting sun. Most of the farms had completed their work for the day, but there were a few who were living up to the motto: "Make hay while the sun shines."
Several farms had confinement buildings longer than a football field. One barn had ducks, another housed egg-laying chickens. One farm advertised eggs for sale.
This family oriented, agrarian lifestyle is an example of what the tourism folks refer to as "quality of place." The term refers to those features that make any particular location desirable to live. For those wanting a rural, quiet area to raise their children, this is it.
When he's patrolling the area, Francis, who is the department's public information officer, said he is looking for someone who is out of place for that area.
"When we're out on a specific detail like this, ultimately what we're looking for is suspicious activity," he said. "It's not necessarily going to be a speeder. It could be a vehicle that's traveling excessively slow, and I'm looking for somebody who's maybe figidity inside their car, looking around a lot. They might be sitting back on the roadway, kind of staking out and doing the same thing we do, in terms of looking for a suspect."
Francis, a 17-year veteran of the sheriff's department, said arson can be a difficult crime to prove. Police either need to catch the person in the act or have strong evidence proving he or she was in the area at the time of the crime. With these fires occurring in sparsely populated rural areas, and late at night, one challenge is a lack of witnesses.
"We're on a state highway right now," Francis said. "It's 8:15 at night. What have we passed? Five or six cars in the 15 minutes we've been driving around? Now, in the afternoon, this is a pretty busy stretch of road. But this time of day, we've seen a couple bikers, a couple buggies, but otherwise there's just not a lot of traffic out here that would lead to a higher probability of having a witness."
Despite a lack of witnesses, police are hoping that increased patrols will serve as a deterrent, and also reassure residents that the authorities are actively looking for the perpetrator. Francis added that the sheriff's department is asking for the public to report any suspicious activity they might see.
During our patrol, one resident did just that. While we were traveling on C.R. 1350 North, Francis received a dispatch regarding a suspicious vehicle, a Ford pickup, just ahead of us on the same road. The dispatcher explained that the pickup had passed his house several times.
Francis stepped on the gas pedal as he sped eastward in search of the pickup. He saw two ladies outside their house on C.R. 400 North and, at 8:58 p.m., stopped to ask if they had seen a pickup truck driving around in the area. They hadn't. So, we ventured north to County Line Road, turned around and headed south again.
At 9:06 p.m., we circled back to the house on 1350 North that reported the suspicious vehicle. Francis interviewed the man, who captured an image of the pickup on his cell phone. Francis took a photo of the cell phone image and thanked the man for reporting the tip.
Back in his pickup, Francis explained that such tips are an important part of the investigation. He noted that some people are hesitant to report suspicious activity, but he said the more eyes that are watching, the better chance the police have of catching the arsonist.
"For us, we can't be everywhere at any given time anyways, so the more that the public can assist us, the easier it makes our investigations."
Barn owners can also take steps to prevent this crime. Francis stopped at one barn to point out that the lack of lighting could make it a target for a would-be arsonist. To be proactive, barn owners can install security lighting and motion-activated video recorders, like trail cameras used by hunters. He said trail cameras are fairly inexpensive.
As we continued the patrol, I wondered why anyone would want to cause destruction in such a beautiful part of the country. Many people have asked me that same question.
Francis didn't offer any theories regarding motive, nor did he speculate whether the perpetrator was male or female, or what age they might be.
He said the possible motives are "endless" when speculating why someone would go around setting fires.
These barn fires cause enormous property damage, Francis noted, but they also require considerable manpower in the extinguishing of fires and then the investigations that arise from each event.
An added element of danger is fact that many barns are located a short distance to homes and other structures. Then there's the risk to the firefighters.
"When you look at it from the personal safety risk, it's an alarming concern that there's somebody out there doing this," Francis said.
So far, no one has been injured in the string of barn fires.
After the June 11 blazes near Nappanee, Sheriff Dukes spoke with leaders in the Amish community to spread the word about the barn fires and how to report tips.
There was one bit of news that came out of my ride-along with Francis. Near the end of his patrol, he called Dukes, who revealed for the first time publicly that gasoline had been used to start the two most recent fires near Nappanee. He added that tips are starting to pour in.
Francis has deep roots in the community. He traces his ancestry in Kosciusko County to the mid-1830s and currently serves as the Tippecanoe Twp. trustee.
During his time with the sheriff's office, he remembers patrolling this same area of northern Kosciusko County, along Hepton Road, nearly 14 years ago. Francis, then a patrolman, was the first officer to respond after a rare October tornado devastated the Nappanee area in 2007. He remembers not just the destruction but also how the community came together that night to help those who were affected.
Now, he and others are protecting the area from the threat of intentionally set fires.
As the patrol returned to our starting point in Nappanee, Francis once again emphasized the importance of the public's help in this investigation. The police need additional "eyes" to look for suspicious behavior and for residents to call in tips. He also encouraged barn owners to install security lighting and motion-sensor technology on their buildings.
Francis said the police are stepping up patrols.
"We want to be able to put their minds at ease," he said, referring to the public. "Get the perpetrator behind bars or whatever the end result may end up being."