Anthony Thomas DeChow of Mountain Home, who was arrested and charged with stealing a truck last month, appeared in Baxter County Circuit Court Thursday and entered a not guilty plea to the charges against him.
DeChow’s story of how he came to possess the 2009 GMC pickup truck fell apart as investigators looked into the theft which was reported in mid-February.
On the same day the truck was reported stolen, the Baxter County Sheriff’s Office received a report from the Missouri Highway Patrol the vehicle had been involved in an accident in Phelps County, Missouri. DeChow was reported to have been driving the truck at the time of the accident.
When DeChow was questioned about the truck, he said he had borrowed it from the father of a friend in order to take a female acquaintance to Illinois to visit her children.
He said he met the friend in the parking lot of Good Samaritan Village to pick up the truck.
As investigators looked into DeChow’s claims, none of them could be verified.
The friend who allegedly loaned her father’s truck to DeChow said she knew him, but had not seen him for several weeks, and he had never asked her about borrowing a truck. The witness said her father did not even own a GMC pickup.
The timeline DeChow provided to officers regarding when he picked up the truck and left Mountain Home for Illinois also did not work out and the evidence indicated he had been in possession of the truck for much longer than he claimed.
DeChow was arrested at his place of employment February 26th. When DeChow was taken into custody, he is alleged to have had a small amount of methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia on his person. DeChow is charged with theft of property, possession of methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia.
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