DNA Left By Alleged Cattle Rustler Leads To Arrest:

Howard Lee Perryman (mug shot GCSO)



A man who was charged with receiving stolen property connected to agricultural thefts in Barry County in 2010 is now facing similar charges in Greene County.

Howard Lee Perryman, 63, of Verona, has been charged with 60 felonies since 1967 and has served time in Missouri and federal prisons after being convicted 20 times.

The Missouri Highway Patrol says his arrest was the result of a lengthy investigation carried out by the patrol's Division of Drug and Crime Control, and the Barry and Greene County sheriff's departments.

 Court documents say that took almost a year for the crime lab to allegedly link Perryman's DNA to a May 2012 cattle theft in Greene County.  Investigators collected a used paper towel that was found near tire tracks where 13 head of  stolen cattle were loaded.

That DNA profile was also linked to other outstanding cases.

Two are tied to two 2006 Greene County farm thefts; the other two were being investigated by the Missouri Highway Patrol Division of Drug and Crime Control.  

A stolen truck out of Jasper County was recovered in a farmers field in Greene County in 2006 after a reported attempted cattle theft.  Inside the truck, detectives found a jacket and a towel.  Lab tests say those items also allegedly contained Perryman's DNA.

On June 12th, detectives were conducting surveillance on Perryman 1995 Sonoma truck parked at CTI Trucking when he allegedly pulled alongside his vehicle in a white flat bed truck.

Court documents say when Perryman left the facility investigators ran the Vehicle Identification Number of the flat bed truck and discovered it had been stolen in Jasper County in  July of 2011. 
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As the investigator was photographing the stolen truck he was made aware of a nearby cattle theft. Tire tracks in a mud puddle on the property where 7 head of cattle were stolen matched the tread on the stolen white truck, according to the probable cause statement.

 During the course of the investigation a GPS tracking device was placed on the stolen truck and on July 8th the vehicle began moving.  Authorities tracked it to a tire business where Perryman was changing a tire.  When authorities attempted to arrest Perryman he fled and led authorities from several different agencies on a chase that lasted nearly a full day.

Perryman, who was out on bond while he awaits trial in Barry County next April, had been under investigation for about a year, according to Barry County Sheriff Mick Epperly.  "He's connected to a lot of thefts in our county and all over southwest Missouri," said Epperly.  "It's going to come down to a bunch of agriculture items from skid steers to hay rakes and rolls and rolls of hay netting and a lot of cattle thefts."

"It's been a great combined investigation between all the agencies involved.  I assigned an investigator as needed to assist the rural crimes division in this investigation," said Epperly.

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Epperly says the investigation into Perryman is ongoing to "see how many thefts he is possibly involved with."