GPS helps lead police to stolen vehicle; 2 arrested

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Photos: Mark Eugene Jeffries and Tessa Leigh Jones

With the help of a GPS tracker on a car that had been stolen, police were able to recover the vehicle and have arrested two people in connection with the theft. The car was stolen from a Mountain Home motel and was recovered in Newport several days later.

Arrested in connection with the theft are 33-year-old Mark Eugene Jeffries of Indianapolis and 22-year-old Tessa Leigh Jones of Mountain Home. Both are charged with a felony count of theft by receiving.

According to the affidavit in the case from the Mountain Home Police Department, the victim stated she and her boyfriend had picked Jeffries up and went to a hotel in town on Feb. 11. The victim says she went to the restroom and when she came out, her vehicle was gone. She told police Jeffries texted her the next day and apologized for taking the vehicle.

Six days after the vehicle had been reported stolen, the dealership where the victim bought the car was able to locate it using the vehicle’s GPS and notified Mountain Home police the car was at a hotel in Newport. Officers from the Newport Police Department were able to locate the car and arrested Jeffries and Jones.

Newport police asked Jeffries how he and Jones had gotten to Newport, and he pointed to the stolen vehicle, which he said he borrowed from the victim.

Both Jeffries and Jones are being held on $25,000 bonds.

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