Deputies: Same Person Responsible For Two Burglaries, Fire At Woodall Church

A Cherokee County church was hit not once, not twice, but three times. The church has been broken into twice this week before being set on fire early Wednesday morning and the pastor is taking it as a test of faith.

Investigators believe one person is to blame for two burglaries and a fire at a Woodall area church this week.

The people of Crescent Valley Baptist Church trust in God's timing, but this timing really couldn't have been worse.

The building is now just a structurally unsound shell of what was their student center.

Senior Pastor, Chadd Pendergraft, said, "Best we could tell, they probably went into every room throughout the building, and some of the rooms they just tried to tear up as much as they could tear up."

By midnight Tuesday, church members cleaned and replaced much of the stolen goods, but at 3:30 Wednesday morning, fire departments from Woodall, Tahlequah and Fort Gibson responded to a fire at the church. The fire heavily damaged the youth building next to it.

"Obviously, they're back. Immediately you're connecting the dots. I don't think anyone would say that's a coincidence two days in a row like that," Pendergraft said.

Chennault says the thief left behind burglary tools and a purple ball cap with a Sacramento Kings logo on it after Tuesday's incident.

The sheriff’s office has submitted evidence from the two burglaries to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation for fingerprint and DNA analysis. The state Fire Marshal’s Office is investigating the cause of the fire.

Student pastor Nick Howk showed us where chairs still sat in the student center, covered in soot, and where burned books and file cabinets had been pulled from the building.

They said it’s a minor setback in God's greater plan.

"What's happening in our church is bigger than a building being burned. We're seeing lives changed, which is eternal. This stuff is temporary, I mean, it's going to all be destroyed eventually one day. It's going to burn to the ground someday," Howk said.

Despite the destruction, Wednesday night service was on in the untouched worship center next door, but there are some difficulties.

The fire happened just a day before 60 church members leave for a mission trip. The room where the fire started was housing all the mission trip materials.

"I come with difficulty but I also have joy in my heart because I know what ultimately was meant for bad, for evil, God's going to use for good. God will bless our church through it," Pendergraft said.

The Cherokee County Sheriff's Office is looking at surveillance video from a camera and trying to get DNA and fingerprints off a hat believed to belong to the burglar or arsonist.

The undersheriff said the same person, or people, committed the crimes.